Yes, it was just a preseason game, but still it was a good win for the University of Central Florida Knights.
It was also a good debut for new head coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak. But she’s been around long enough to know it is more important to win the last game of the season than the first.
We are talking about a 2-0 victory over the #9 ranked Florida Gators. It [show_disconnected][show_to accesslevel=’Subscriber’]was the first time since 1982 that the Knights had won a game on the Gators’ home field.
Two newcomers scored the UCF goals. Freshman Lena Petermann knocked in a rebound to give UCF a 1-0 lead in the 27th minute.
Junior transfer Tatiana Coleman made it 2-0 from long distance minutes into the second half.
Petermann is one of eight freshmen who joined the program earlier this month. She is a member of Germany’s U-17 WNT.
Coleman, who hails from Boca Raton, played two years at Auburn. As a sophomore she was first team All-SEC and named to the SEC All-Tournament team. She was the Tigers’ leading scorer.
She enrolled at UCF in January, expecting to play for Amanada Cromwell, who left the program earlier this year to become the head women’s soccer coach at UCLA.
Coleman had a host of honors coming out of high school and had been invited to a youth national team camp while being a member of the Region III ODP team.
She earned a spot on the 2011 SEC All-Freshman Team her first year at Auburn.
Petermann isn’t the only national player in the Knights’ freshman class.
Kayla Adamek is on Canada’s U-17 national team, Bettina Karoline Heinze is a member of the German U-17 and U-20 National teams, and Amanda Moura is a member of Brazil’s U-17 National Team.
It has been a busy summer for Roberts Sahaydak, who spent four days in early August running clinics, giving motivational talks and teaching both coaches and children in Namibia for the U.S. State Department.
In her career she has made similar trips to Uganda, Philippines, Thailand, Brazil and France.
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