A hard 17-yard shot by senior Shana Hudson in the 107^th minute gave the No. 21 University of Florida soccer team (15-4-2, 9-2 SEC) the 1-0 2OT win over LSU (11-4-7, 5-2-4 SEC) in Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinal play Friday evening at the Orange Beach SportsPlex.

It was quickly evident that the scoreboard was not going to resemble the 5-0 win the Gators recorded over LSU on Oct. 28 in Gainesville, Fla., where UF scored on five of its 11 shots on goal. The Tigers added another player to the backline for this match, giving them four in the back. Florida did outshoot the Tigers 22-2 Friday, but were unable to finish any of previous nine shots on goal recorded before Shana Hudson’s goal.

“We should have expected a team that was looking to keep their season alive,” Shana Hudson said. “We sat back on that early in the game, but we eventually got into the game after about 20 minutes. But in the end, I just thought we were really unlucky. I think we definitely had the opportunities – we just didn’t finish them like we did two weeks ago.”

It was Shana Hudson who provided the Gators with the decisive finish. She was wide on the right when she received the ball from Stacy Bishop from near the top of the 18-yard box. She took a touch before delivering the hard shot that scored from 17-yards at the far post. The goal, her third of the season, is the first golden goal of her four collegiate scores.

“I had a lot of open space around me. Stacy (Bishop) saw me and played me a really good ball. I just took a touch and hit it,” Shana Hudson said. “It might have hit another player, but it went in and that’s all that matters.”

The win sends Florida to its 11^th SEC Tournament final in the program’s 13-year history. Although the team leads the league with seven tournament titles, none of those crowns were earned in the three previous years the tournament was held at the Orange Beach SportsPlex. Florida last won the SEC title in 2004 with a 2-1 2OT win over Tennessee in Auburn, Ala.

LSU advanced to Friday’s semifinal with 4-2 advantage in penalty kicks after playing Auburn to a 2-2 20T tie. This was the fifth overtime match for the Tigers in their last six contests.

“You have to give credit to LSU for keeping the ball out of the back of the net because we certainly put a lot of pressure on them,” UF Head Coach Becky Burleigh said. “There were a couple of times that we were a little bit impatient. We were trying to tell the team at halftime and between the overtime periods that we needed to be more patient and try to get endline and keep the width. The width is where we wanted to attack them and the width is where we got the goal. It was a great finish by Shana for the win.”

Florida had scoring chances throughout the match. Some of the better chances included in the 12^th minute, Melanie Booth served the ball into the box where KeLeigh Hudson took a shot at the near post. The ball was deflected by LSU goalkeeper Valerie Vogler, but it continued to float along the face of the goal. Bishop was just a fraction of a step away from putting the ball away at the far post.

A nice combination play almost resulted in far post goal in the 22^nd minute. KeLeigh Hudson back-heeled the ball to Shana Hudson, who was making the right-side overlapping run. Shana Hudson served the ball into the box, but Bishop’s far post shot was wide.

In the final three minutes of regulation, Florida had two good looks at the goal. In the 87^th minute, Shana Hudson served the ball into box, but Vogler made the stop in the middle of the box just before KeLeigh Hudson could get her head on the ball. In the 88^th minute, Melanie Booth served a 30-yard ball to the far post. LSU had trouble clearing the ball from danger and the ball popped out wide of the far post. Bishop took a shot from a sharp angle, but the ball was wide of the opposite post.

Four minutes into the first overtime period, the Gators ran a short corner play and Megan Kerns served it into the box. Bishop, back to goal, tried to take the short shot but it was wide. KeLeigh Hudson, just 12 yards from the goal near the endline, used a bicycle kick to get the ball to the near post, but Kerns’ eight-yard shot was wide in the 97^th minute.

All the challenges of Friday’s match will help the Gators, Burleigh said.

“It is really a good time for us to win a tight game like this. We haven’t faced a lot of adversity this month,” Burleigh said. “This is the first time we did and I’m glad we came out on top.”

Next up, the Gators meet Georgia in Sunday’s SEC Tournament championship match. The Bulldogs advanced to the program’s second SEC Tournament final with a 2-0 semifinal win over South Carolina. Match time is set for 3:30 p.m (ET) at the Orange Beach SportsPlex. The match will air live on FSN-Florida (Cox Cable 70 in Gainesville/Ocala). Match statistics plus streaming audio of Sunday’s match can be found on the official website of the Florida Gators, www.GatorZone.com.