Injury Riddled Cowgirls Fall to Florida

The Cowgirls' woes continued Sunday after falling to No. 5 Florida, 4-0, at Cowgirl Soccer Complex. After a tough weekend against top five foes, Oklahoma State drops to 0-4-0.

Oklahoma State has been struggling offensively and the absence of Madison Mercado and Anna Beffer doesn't help. Mercado was injured Friday night against Florida State and Beffer went down with an ankle injury Wednesday at practice. Mercado will undergo an MRI tomorrow or Tuesday, but OSU coach Colin Carmichael said the midfielder won't be returning any time soon. Freshman Beryl Smith also joined the disabled list Sunday. Smith came in as a substitute midway through the first half for the depth lacking Cowgirls. After ten minutes of play, Smith attempted a shot, but was knocked down by a Florida defender during the process. Carmichael said he was told Smith has a dislocated elbow after the game, which means the reserve will miss an extensive amount of time.

Florida (3-1-0) struck quick and scored just over two minutes into the game off of Havana's Solaun short range goal. After the Gators quick score, both teams were evenly matched and went into the locker room with a 1-0 score.

Florida didn't score again until the 73rd minute to extend its lead to 2-0. After Florida's second score, Carmichael changed his team's strategy to be more aggressive, but the plan backfired. The Gators punched in their third goal at 86:42 and another at 89:24.

"The effort is there, the kids are trying hard. The score line flattered Florida. At 2-0, we put up another attacking kid to try and cause them trouble so that’s on us. I told the kids the score line at the end is irrelevant because we have to go try and score," Carmichael said after the game.

The Cowgirls will travel to Tempe, Ariz. Friday to play host Arizona State in the Sun Devil Desert Classic. The team will also challenge Arizona Sunday in the classic.