# 2020 Florida State Seminoles women's soccer team

The 2020 Florida State Seminoles women's soccer team represented Florida State University during the 2020 NCAA Division I women's soccer season. It was the 26th season of the university fielding a program. The Seminoles were led by 16th year head coach Mark Krikorian.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ACC played a reduced schedule in 2020 and the NCAA Tournament was postponed to 2021.
The Seminoles finished the fall season 11–0–0, 8–0–0 in ACC play, to finish in first place. As the first seed in the ACC Tournament, they defeated Notre Dame, Duke, and finally North Carolina to claim the championship. The Seminoles did not play any additional games in the spring season and entered the NCAA Tournament as the ACC's automatic qualifier because they won the ACC Tournament. They were selected as the first overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and defeated Milwaukee in the Second Round and Penn State in the Third Round. They advanced past Duke in the Quarterfinals and Virginia in the Semifinals on penalty shootouts. However, their shootout luck ran out in the Finals, where they fell to Santa Clara to end their season. Jaelin Howell went on to win the Herman Trophy.

## Previous season

The Seminoles finished the season 18–6–0, 8–2–0 in ACC play, to finish in second place. As the second seed in the ACC Tournament, they defeated Clemson in the first round before losing in overtime to Virginia in the semifinals. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament where they defeated South Alabama, Brown, and USF, before losing to UCLA in the quarterfinals.

## Squad
### Roster

Source:
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | PUR | Cristina Roque |
| 2 | FW | USA | Jenna Nighswonger |
| 4 | MF | USA | Kristina Lynch |
| 5 | DF | SWE | Linn Bogren |
| 6 | MF | USA | Jaelin Howell |
| 7 | MF | JPN | Ran Iwai |
| 8 | FW | USA | Lauren Flynn |
| 10 | FW | JAM | Jody Brown |
| 11 | MF | USA | Kirsten Pavlisko |
| 12 | MF | IRL | Heather Payne |
| 13 | FW | BER | LeiLanni Nesbeth |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 15 | MF | USA | Kaitlyn Zipay |
| 16 | DF | CAN | Gabby Carle |
| 17 | DF | USA | Malia Berkely |
| 20 | FW | USA | Kristen McFarland |
| 21 | MF | CHN | Yujie Zhao |
| 22 | DF | USA | Alyssa Conarton |
| 24 | FW | USA | Makala Thomas |
| 25 | MF | USA | Emily Madril |
| 26 | DF | USA | Clara Robbins |
| 45 | GK | USA | Brooke Bollinger |

### Team management

| Position | Staff |
| Athletic Director | David Coburn |
| Head Coach | Mark Krikorian |
| Assistant Coach | Mike Bristol |
| Assistant Coach | Morinao Imaizumi |
| Director of Operations | Nathan Minion |
Source:

## Schedule

Source:
| Date Time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | Site (Attendance) City, State |
| ACC Regular season ||||||
| September 17 8:00 p.m., ACCN | No. 2 | Notre Dame | W 5–0 | 1–0–0 (1–0–0) | Seminole Soccer Complex (298) Tallahassee, FL |
| September 20 1:00 p.m., ACCN | No. 2 | Louisville | W 1–0 | 2–0–0 (2–0–0) | Seminole Soccer Complex (331) Tallahassee, FL |
| October 1 8:00 p.m., ACCN | No. 2 | at Virginia Tech | W 4–0 | 3–0–0 (3–0–0) | Thompson Field (124) Blacksburg, VA |
| October 4 1:00 p.m., ACCNX | No. 2 | at Wake Forest | W 4–0 | 4–0–0 (4–0–0) | Spry Stadium (100) Winston-Salem, NC |
| October 15 6:00 p.m., ACCN | No. 2 | at Pittsburgh | W 4–1 | 5–0–0 (5–0–0) | Ambrose Urbanic Field (50) Pittsburgh, PA |
| October 18 3:30 p.m., ESPN2 | No. 2 | at No. 11 Virginia | W 4–3 | 6–0–0 (6–0–0) | Klöckner Stadium (188) Charlottesville, VA |
| October 29 4:00 p.m., ACCRSN | No. 2 | No. 5 Duke | W 1–0 | 7–0–0 (7–0–0) | Seminole Soccer Complex (284) Tallahassee, FL |
| November 1 3:00 p.m., ACCRSN | No. 2 | No. 3 Clemson | W 2–0 | 8–0–0 (8–0–0) | Seminole Soccer Complex (400) Tallahassee, FL |
| ACC Tournament ||||||
| November 10 12:30 p.m., ACCN | (1) No. 2 | vs. (8) No. 12 Notre Dame Quarterfinals | W 2–0 | 9–0–0 | Sahlen's Stadium (217) Cary, NC |
| November 13 5:30 p.m., ACCN | (1) No. 2 | vs. (5) No. 6 Duke Semifinals | W 4–0 | 10–0–0 | Sahlen's Stadium (277) Cary, NC |
| November 15 Noon, ESPNU | (1) No. 2 | vs. (2) No. 1 North Carolina Finals | W 3–2 | 11–0–0 | Sahlen's Stadium (320) Cary, NC |
| NCAA Tournament ||||||
| May 1, 2021 3:00 p.m. | (1) No. 1 | vs. Milwaukee Second Round | W 3–0 | 12–0–0 | WakeMed Soccer Park (144) Cary, NC |
| May 5, 2021 3:00 p.m., NCAA Livestream | (1) No. 1 | vs. No. 9 Penn State Third Round | W 3–1 | 13–0–0 | WakeMed Soccer Park (185) Cary, NC |
| May 9, 2021 1:00 p.m., NCAA Livestream | (1) No. 1 | vs. (9) No. 8 Duke Quarterfinals | T 0–0 (5–3 PKs) $^{2OT}$ | 13–0–1 | WakeMed Soccer Park (164) Cary, NC |
| May 13, 2021 6:00 p.m., ESPN2 | (1) No. 1 | vs. No. 13 Virginia Semifinals | T 0–0 (3–0 PKs) $^{2OT}$ | 13–0–2 | WakeMed Soccer Park (2,166) Cary, NC |
| May 17, 2021 5:30 p.m., ESPN2 | (1) No. 1 | vs. (11) No. 10 Santa Clara Finals | T 1–1 (1–4 PKs) $^{2OT}$ | 13–0–3 | WakeMed Soccer Park (5,000) Cary, NC |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from United Soccer Coaches. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. ||||||

## Rankings
### Fall 2020

Ranking movement Legend: ██ Improvement in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking. ██ Not ranked the previous week. RV=Others receiving votes. :
| Poll | Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 | Wk 7 | Wk 8 | Wk 9 | Final |
| United Soccer | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |

### Spring 2021

Ranking movement Legend: ██ Improvement in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking. ██ Not ranked the previous week. RV=Others receiving votes. :
| Poll | Pre | Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 | Wk 7 | Wk 8 | Wk 9 | Wk 10 | Wk 11 | Wk 12 | Wk 13 | Final |
| United Soccer | None Released | None Released | None Released | None Released | 1 (28) | 1 (31) | 1 (33) | 1 (30) | 1 (31) | 1 (33) | 1 (32) | 1 (28) | None Released | None Released | 2 (1) |
| TopDrawer Soccer | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 |