SEC Soccer Week 4 Preview: Florida travels across the country for another top ten matchup

SEC Week 4 Game of the Week

Florida travels across the country for its second straight top 5 matchup Friday night at 10:30 p.m. ET against No. 4 Stanford. The game will be the fourth of six straight road games for Florida, who will travel to New Mexico for a game on Sunday.

Entering last week's play at No. 8, Florida defeated No. 2 Florida State 2-1 in Tallahassee last Friday night. Florida scored two goals in the first 35 minutes before Florida State struck back in the 44th minute. Florida sophomore midfielder Pamela Begič scored the first before assisting on Betsy Middleton's game winning goal. The match ended Florida State's 37 match home unbeaten streak and 38 match (home and away) regular season unbeaten streak. For her effort, Begič took home SEC Offensive Player of the Week.

Stanford has yet to concede a goal in the 2014 season, but it has only scored six goals in five games. Stanford has a top 10 win with a 1-0 overtime win against number 10 North Carolina and a tie against number 19 Notre Dame. Senior forward Chioma Ubogagu leads Stanford with three goals on the young season and has 20 goals during her Stanford career. Last year, Stanford finished 21-1-2, defeated South Carolina in the second round of the NCAA tournament, and fell to fellow Pac-12 member UCLA in the third round.

The game will be aired on the Pac-12 Network Bay Area at 10:30 p.m. ET Friday night.

The Undercard

• Tennessee travels to No. 2 Virginia Friday night. Last week, the Cavaliers defeated Alabama 3-0 in Tuscaloosa while the Vols beat Western Kentucky 2-0 and Tulsa 1-0.
• Kentucky hosts No. 13 Pepperdine Sunday on the SEC Network+. Kentucky received 14 votes in this week's NSCAA poll to place the Wildcats twelfth in the "Others Receiving Votes" category.
• LSU travels to Duke Sunday. Last week, Duke defeated Arkansas and the Blue Devils remain just outside the Top 25.

Talking Points

• Outside of Florida's win over Florida State, it was a bit of a rough weekend for the SEC's top ranked teams. Texas A&M fell to No. 12 (from 6) in this week's NSCAA poll after tying Arizona 2-2 and losing to Arizona State 2-1. South Carolina fell to rival Clemson 1-0 and beat High Point 2-0. The Gamecocks fell from number nine to 16. Arkansas dropped both of it's games at Duke, 3-0 to Duke and 2-1 to North Carolina, and fell out of this week's poll.
• Auburn continued its hot start to the season at the Ole Miss tournament with wins over Memphis (3-0) and Minnesota (3-1). Auburn has won every game since its season opening loss to (now ranked No. 16) Clemson and entered the current poll at No. 18. The host Rebels gave their home fans plenty of extra game time this week with a double overtime win over Minnesota (3-2) and a 1-1 tie with Memphis after the two overtime periods.
• Much like the AP Poll in football, sometimes other sports' polls do not make much sense. After defeating the rival Seminoles, Florida jumped two spots to No. 6. Florida State fell three spots to No. 5, but remained ahead of the Gators. South Carolina also remained one spot ahead of Clemson, but the Tigers were a new entry to the NSCAA poll this week at No. 16.
• South Carolina set a new home attendance record with 5,855 fans against Clemson. South Carolina joins Arkansas, Mississippi State and Ole Miss in setting attendance records this season.

Week 3 Results

Friday, September 5, 2014

Memphis 0, Auburn 3
at Louisville, Kentucky 2
at Arkansas State 0, Mississippi State 5
at #2 Florida State 1, #8 Florida 2
at #9 South Carolina 0, Clemson 1
at Georgia 4, Houston 0
at Western Kentucky 0, Tennessee 2
at Duke 3, #18 Arkansas 0
at Ole Miss 3, Minnesota 2
at Alabama 0, #3 Virginia 3
at Arizona 2, #6 Texas A&M 2
at Missouri 0, Northwestern 0
at TCU 2, LSU 0
at Rice, Vanderbilt 1

Sunday, September 7, 2014

#14 North Carolina 2, #18 Arkansas 1
Auburn 3, Minnesota 1
at #9 South Carolina 2, High Point 0
at Georgia 1, #17 UCF 0
at Arizona State 2, #6 Texas A&M 1
at Missouri 1, UT-Martin 0
at North Texas 1, Vanderbilt 0
at Kentucky 3, Morehead State 0
at Tennessee 1, Tulsa 0
at Alabama 2, Jacksonville State 0
at Ole Miss 1, Memphis 1 (2OT)

Monday, September 8, 2014

at LSU 0, Stephen F. Austin 0 (2OT)

Week 4 Schedule