Abby Wambach and Heather Mitts Selected to Women’s World Cup Team

The Florida women’s lacrosse team has been in the news a lot lately. And rightfully so. They are good and it took them barely anytime to get there. Their rise to the top of collegiate lacrosse has been nothing short of remarkable, but there is another Gators program out there that achieved success just as fast.

In only its fourth year of existence, the Florida women’s soccer team won a National Championship. The 1998 season would be the third year in a row the Gators made the NCAA Tournament. In fact, their inaugural season – 1995 – was the only time they missed the tourney. Florida won that title in the midst of UNC’s dominance. The Tar Heels had won the previous two championships and 14 of the first 16. They’ve won another six since the Gators took home the trophy. Basically, it was extremely impressive for anyone to knock off the Tar Heels, let alone a program in only its fourth season.

Over the years, the Gators have had their share of stars and two of those are still experiencing glory in the sport. Abby Wambach and Heather Mitts (both were on the Gators National Championship team) were both selected to represent the United States in the 2011 World Cup.

Wambach is perhaps the biggest star to ever play for the Gators. She is Florida’s all-time leading scorer and was twice named the SEC Player of the Year. Wambach would go on to experience great success at an international level as well. Only five women have ever scored 100 goals for the U.S. Wambach did it in the least number of games. All things being equal, she will go down as the country’s all-time leading goal scorer. She currently has scored 117 goals. Mia Hamm finished her career with 158. Hamm also played in 121 more matches than Wambach has so far. At 30 years old, she has plenty of time to claim the record.

When Mitts left Florida she was the all-time leader in games played, games started, and minutes played. She has appeared in 115 matches with the U.S. team and was part of the squads that won gold medals in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. Unfortunately for Mitts, she missed the 2007 World Cup after tearing her ACL.