Three goals by three different players gave the No. 21 Florida soccer team (10-4-2, 6-1-1 SEC) a 3-1 victory over Mississippi State (2-13, 1-7 SEC) Sunday afternoon in front of a James G. Pressly crowd of 879.

Angela Napolitano scored first for the Gators, taking a few touches on the ball to make space before sending the eight-yard shot to the far post at 11:27. It was the freshman’s third goal of the season and first versus an SEC rival.

“Shelley (Lyle) played the ball into my feet. I just took a turn and turned down the defender. I saw the goalie was kind of cheating to the near post so I just shot it far post,” Napolitano said. “I think it was a bit of a relief getting the first goal. It is hard to get the first one and usually when you get the first one, hopefully that means more will come.”

An early goal was a focus for UF today.

“One of our goals going into the game was to score early. We knew that they would sit in and bunker a little bit, so we wanted to see if scoring early would take them out of that,” UF Head Coach Becky Burleigh said. “Obviously, it didn’t, but we were fortunate to put up three goals today.”

Florida’s next two goals involved the team’s leading scorers, Ameera Abdullah and Stacy Bishop. The Gators’ second goal came off the result of MSU’s Brandi Parker receiving a yellow card when she committed a foul on Abdullah in the box. Bishop made good on the penalty kick at 13:10, only the second awarded to UF this season.

Abdullah, who turned in the golden goal in Friday’s 1-0 OT win versus Mississippi, got her second goal of the weekend at 55:39. Bishop had the ball near the top of the box and her pass found Abdullah open in the box. Abdullah one-touched the ball into the goal from 12 yards.

“I just tried to get in the box. I saw Bishop and I thought she had an angle to slot it right across,” Abdullah said. “I just called for it and she saw me.”

After Sunday’s match, Abdullah leads UF with eight goals and Bishop tops UF’s points chart with 19 off of seven goals and five assists.

The Bulldogs ended their scoreless streak at 537:53 minutes (last goal scored Sept. 24 in 3-2 win versus Tennessee), scoring on their second shot of the match. Freshman Hannah Tyler fired a 22-yard shot that went in at the far post upper corner to score her first collegiate goal at 81:05.

Burleigh was happy with UF’s results this weekend, as the Gators added points to their SEC regular-season lead.

“This weekend was good for us,” Burleigh said. “We got six points (three points for each win), exactly what we were trying to do. We’ve got to take them one at a time because the SEC regular season championship is a big goal of ours.”

Florida finishes it regular-season home slate Friday, Oct. 20 when Arkansas visits Pressly Stadium for a 7 p.m. match. The Lady Razorbacks (10-4-1, 3-3-1 SEC) recorded a 0-0 2OT result versus Auburn Sunday afternoon. Friday’s match is Senior Day and four Gators – Kelli Eisenbrown, Brittni Goodwin, Ansley Myrick and Ananda O’Neal - will be honored in a pre-match ceremony. Live, streaming video of Friday’s match will be available on www.GatorVision.tv and the match can also be heard live on www.GatorZone.com.