Maryland women’s soccer trailed Florida by one goal at half. The Terps had a big hill to climb, being outshot 9-4 and failing to make any offensive inroads.

When play resumed, Florida’s Kai Tsakiris was sent down twice in the 18-yard box with officials keeping their whistles unused. But the fouls did eventually come.

Florida continued to push, and after Ella Bulava tripped an attacker in the box, the Gators were awarded a free kick. Addy Hess blew her shot by Faith Luckey to extend Florida’s lead to two goals.

In an aggressive, high-foul match, that score served as the decider. The Gators took down Maryland, 3-1.

Florida began Sunday’s match with their signature bootball, punting the ball far left into Maryland women’s soccer’s bleachers. Continuing their aggressive nature, the Gators drove into the box as a shot by Megan Hinnenkamp was deflected away by Tayron Raibon. Defensive management continued, as a pair of passes were nabbed by Raibon and captain Tahirah Turnage-Morales.

A pair of shots from Ellie Egeland just missed the mark low, as goalkeeper Paloma Pena handled both efforts swimmingly.

Neither team gained an advantage in the first 10 minutes. Both sides suffered from sloppy passing and offsides infractions.

After a long, lobbed free kick, Charlotte McClure launched a ball from close range into the top right corner to give Florida the lead in the 14th minute.

Mia Mitchell was issued a red card after sending a Florida attacker to the turf. The scuffle appeared to be light contact. Mitchell was left stunned after the call, trudging off the pitch.

A player down, Maryland struggled to gain offensive momentum as Florida maintained possession for over 10 minutes consecutively.

The Terps stayed poised on the backline, blocking three shots late in the half. However, passing continued to plague Maryland as many midfield passes skidded off target into Gator boots.

After a costly foul on Skye Barnes, Turnage-Morales scored the maiden goal of her career off a pass from Kelsey Smith to cut the lead in half in the 58th minute.

Smith continued the pressure on Florida’s defense, driving into the box and sending a pass to Lisa Mcintyre, whose shot scared the goal.

Momentum continued to swing back and forth, and both teams maintained their composure in their defensive zones. Florida failed to capitalize on its pressure, though, as Hess was issued a yellow card deep into Maryland territory.

Just moments later in the 80th minute, Hess scored her second goal of the game off a low driven cross from Njeri Butts. The shot sailed to Luckey’s left and found the net, all but sealing Florida’s third win of the season.

The third card of the game was issued in the 84th minute on a questionable push from Alyssa Abramson at midfield. She added on another foul a minute later, marking Maryland’s ninth of the game. Players began to lose composure, as pushing and shoving capped off the match.

Head coach Michael Marchiano has set forth big expectations for his team this season, and the early red card was no help to their chances today.

“We’re slowly trying to make progress, and we’ve been able to do that in different phases of the game,” said Marchiano. “While our results have been very positive early on, just every phase of performance is going to be at the highest level for us to be competitive moving forward.”

1. Fouls. The Terps logged a season-high 10 fouls in an especially chippy match. Although Florida recorded nine fouls of its own, it was the red card on Mitchell that put the match out of reach for the Terps before they had had a chance to strike back.

2. “Disappointing.” That was the statement made by Marchiano in reaction to Raibon’s early red card.

“Whether I agree or disagree doesn’t really matter,” Marchiano said. “We put ourselves in a situation for that to happen…to have an opportunity to play today against a good opponent and have to do it with ten players for a long time is disappointing.”

3. More than just five games. Despite today’s disappointing loss, Marchiano remains in high hopes for the remainder of the 2025 campaign.

“To be able to [win a fifth game} would mean a lot and it would be a reference of some progress. On the other hand, we want to win a whole lot more than five games this season for Maryland Women’s soccer.”