Canes Soccer Falls to North Florida 1-0 in Season Opener
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami soccer team dropped its 2024 season opener 1-0 to North Florida Thursday night at Cobb Stadium.
“We are incredibly disappointed with the result, but credit to North Florida, they made their chance count and we didn’t finish ours,” said Head Coach Ken Masuhr. “Winning games is hard, and at the moment we want to win, but lacked the quality in the final third and the tempo required to do so. We will need to regroup quickly as we play another quality side in FAU on the road on Sunday.”
After a bit of a slow start from the Hurricanes, they began to press their offensive attack heavily around the 15-minute mark. In the 20th minute of the match, Deiyna “JJ” Ndaw fired a shot from just inside the box that the UNF goalkeeper Sofia Miliancano struggled to corral, and Caroline Hood found herself in prime position to score off the rebound. Hood laced a shot from the center of the box, however, Miliancano managed to recover and made an incredible save to keep the match scoreless.
Shortly after the prime opportunity for the Hurricanes, UNF’s Allison Souers managed to find the back of the net in the 27th minute, as the Ospreys took a 1-0 lead.
Miami compiled two shots and one corner kick over the final 18 minutes of the first half; but, they failed to score, entering halftime trailing by a lone goal.
The Hurricanes came out of the intermission period and pressed their attack, as they dominated possession to open the period. Just over five minutes into the second half, Miami found themselves with another prime opportunity. Kyle Gallagher dribbled past a UNF defender on the right side of the box and ripped a shot that was blocked; however, the deflection went straight to the foot of Giovana Canali. Canali fired off a shot on her first touch; but, Miliancano came up with another massive save to prevent the Hurricanes from scoring.
Miami continued to battle down the stretch and put together a handful of quality opportunities over the final 25 minutes. Unfortunately, the Hurricanes were unable to find the back of the net, as they went on to fall to UNF by a final score of 1-0.
Miami tallied 10 shots, six of which were on goal throughout the contest, while UNF posted six total shots and four shots on goal.
The Canes return to the field on Sunday, as they are set to travel to Boca Raton to face FAU at 6 p.m. in their first road match of the season.
