On a rainy Thursday night at Cobb Stadium, four Miami seniors were honored before the last home women’s soccer match of the 2004 season. One of them would record an assist by the end of the night as the Hurricanes lost 2-1 to Central Florida.
After a 26-minute delay due to lightning, Britney Butcher, Gitana Gotay, Anik Huffman and Andrea Radice took the field for the pre-game festivities in their honor. Even Sebastian the Ibis wore a cap and gown for the event.
Butcher holds four career records in shots taken, goals scored, total points and game-winning goals. In 2002 she set individual season records for most goals in a season (16), most points in a season (34) and most game winning goals (four). That season she also posted a .600 shot on goal percentage.
Gotay, a Broadcast Journalism and Criminology major with a minor in Spanish, scored game winning goals against Loyola in 2003 and St. John’s in 2002.
Huffman has a goal this season and five shots. Over her career as a Hurricane, she had game winning assists against Columbia in 2003 and South Florida (2002). Huffman was also the team leader in shot on goal percentage in 2001 with .765.
Radice, who majors in Business Management with a minor in Education and recently got engaged, had game winning assists against Jacksonville in 2003 and the LSU Tigers in 2002. She has scored a goal this season and recorded four shots.
“I’m very grateful for their commitment and being the foundation of this team,” Head Coach Tricia Taliaferro said.
After the four were honored, the whistle blew for the first half, where the aggressive play of UCF led to the first goal of the match by the Golden Knights’ Summer Savage in the 24th minute.
By the time the second half started, Miami’s adjustments were having more success against UCF’s physical play.
“In the second half we wanted to attack more and moved the defenders up,” Radice said.
Arielle Orr scored the second goal for UCF in the second half to put the Golden Knights up 2-0.
The Hurricanes’ aggressive offensive effort in the second was based on moving downfield, forcing five corner kicks in the second half. With time running down in the second half on a Miami surge, Radice took a shot that beat UCF goalkeeper Julie Snaman but it bounced off the crossbar. Junior Lindsey Yach took the rebound and scored in the 87th minute.
With that goal, Yach now leads the team in scoring, breaking a tie with sophomore Kelly Pflunger and Butcher.
That would be as close as Miami would get.
With senior night behind them, the only game left of the regular season is at Florida Atlantic on Wednesday. Even though their last game at Cobb Stadium didn’t end with the ‘Canes on top, Butcher, Gotay, Huffman and Radice left an impact on the field and in the record books for future classes to live up to.
“I’m really going to miss everyone I have known from freshman to senior year,” Radice said. “I don’t know where I would be without them.”
Rodolfo Tomarchio can be contacted at r.tomarchio@umiami.edu.