GAINESVILLE, Fla., Nov. 15, 2019 – The Bulls will move on to the NCAA Tournament's second round for the fourth time in program history. The No. 11/17 University of South Florida women's soccer team defeated the Florida Gators, 4-2, to keep its season alive and move to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament. Evelyne Viens (L'Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec, Canada) had another record-breaking night to power USF's offensive attack.
 
Viens scored three goals to earn her fourth career hat trick, breaking the program's all-time record. Her season goal total now sits at 23, breaking not only the USF program record which she set last season, but also the American Athletic Conference single-season record. 

Both teams had crafty moves to earn possession in the game's opening stages, but USF started to more consistently move through the Gators defense as the half progressed. The Bulls outshot Florida, 12-5, by the end of the opening 45 minutes.
 
In the 43^rd minute, Viens broke free. Rosalia Muino Gonzalez tapped a ball to Viens in the middle of the box, who took a shot that beat two Florida defenders and the Gators' goalkeeper to put USF on top, 1-0, going into halftime.
 
Just over five minutes into the second half, Viens struck again. Andrea Hauksdottir (Kopavogur, Iceland) intercepted a pass near midfield and delivered a perfect ball to Viens in the box, who redirected it past the UF goalkeeper to expand the lead to 2-0. Three minutes later, Sydny Nasello (Land O' Lakes, Fla.) and Aubrey Megrath (West Palm Beach, Fla.) combined to find Viens to give the Bulls a 3-0 lead.
 
In the 62^nd minute, the Gators got on the board off the foot of Deanne Rose. Following Florida's response, the scoring subsided before another push by the Bulls resulted in a corner kick opportunity. Hauksdottir delivered the kick to Fanny Pelletier-Laroche (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), who scored off a header to expand the lead to 4-1.
 
Florida tried again for a comeback, finding the back of the net 32 seconds after the Bulls scored to shrink the lead back to two. However, the Bulls clamped back down on defense for the last six minutes to end the game with the 4-2 victory.
 
Hauksdottir had a pair of assists for the third time this season. Sydney Martinez (Rincon, Ga.) tied her season-high with six saves in the match, a mark set previously in the regular-season finale at UCF on Oct. 31.
 
 Quotable
Head coach Denise Schilte-Brown on how playing Florida in the regular season prepared the team…
"One-hundred percent. Not only do you have that real-life experience of their speed, you can say (Florida's) Deanne Rose is fast, but until you've experienced it, you don't know what that means. You can just talk about the way they move the ball and what it's like, but obviously living it once, it just helps you prepare for it. I didn't think that there was a ton of change from the way Florida played us before, so that allowed us to be confident in what we were going to do. We have a lot of seniors. We won't always have a lot of seniors, but I think the maturity of that group helps with the tactics. Sometimes, when you have a younger team, you talk about the tactics and I don't know how much that matters once the game kicks off. But with this group, they've stayed focused, and they believe in themselves. It's not hard to convince them that they're going to win soccer games."
 
 Key Stat
 12:24 – Viens' hat trick was scored in just 12:24 of game time. The first goal was scored at 42:22 in the first half, and her third goal of the night was scored at 54:46 in the second half. 
 
Notable

• Viens tied her season-high with 10 shots in the game.
• The Bulls defeated Florida for the first time in program history. Previously, USF was 0-6-1 against the Gators, including a loss to UF in the season's opening weekend.

 
Up Next
The Bulls play the winner of the match between Washington and Seattle. The match will be played at the highest seed left in the pod, which consists of one-seed Florida State and four-seed Washington. Washington and Seattle play tomorrow.
 
About USF Women's Soccer
Be sure to follow USF women's soccer on social media (Twitter / Instagram/Facebook) and visit GoUSFBulls.com for the most up-to-date information. 
 
The USF women's soccer team has posted seven consecutive seasons of 10-plus wins and nine in the last 10 years under head coach Denise Schilte-Brown. The Bulls made their first NCAA tournament appearance in 2010 and returned in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018.
-#GoBulls-