TAMPA, Fla. – Mindy McCord took a seat in the comforts of the Lee Roy Selmon Athletics Center lobby Saturday afternoon to chat about her team after a challenging week that could have left her Bulls in an uncomfortable position.
McCord’s team traveled to Virginia to play two games in three days, a 21-3 conference win at Old Dominion and a 15-14 non-conference setback at Virginia. The Bulls, battling a bit of the flu bug, returned to Tampa to host Liberty last Thursday night for a third game in five days. That’s when Mother Nature halted proceedings during the first half with an hour-long rain delay.
With the score knotted at eight, neither team could find the goal in the final three and half minutes of the fourth quarter. A five-minute overtime was played without deciding a victor before redshirt senior Maggie Newton settled the score in the second overtime when she put home her third goal of the game with 2:03 remaining.
The Bulls could finally catch their breath following the 9-8 victory that concluded three and a half hours after it began.
“Four days on the road, the flu, a night game, a weather delay, two overtimes,” said McCord, rattling off “obstacles” her team overcame in winning two of three in a short window. “I think they experienced adversity and developed a bit of resiliency. I would like to think of it in terms of how it will prepare us down the road.”
Battle-tested Bulls
Liberty was yet another tough opponent for the Bulls (8-3/3-0 American) during this 2026 season. They hosted and lost to Michigan and Navy, both top 10 programs. Richmond was No. 23 and Virginia checked in at No. 25 when the Bulls matched up with them. James Madison, which USF defeated (9-7) on March 21, is the defending American Conference champ and opened the season at No. 20.
“Playing a hard schedule brings out elements of your game that may not surface against teams that are not as difficult to play against,” said Newton, an upstate New York native who is 47-40-87 in 29 games with USF after transferring from Mercyhurst. “It challenges you in unique ways. The (opposition) just doesn’t lay down as we run all over them. Playing top 25 teams presents a great challenge.”
Another such challenge is on tap for Wednesday afternoon (3:00) when the Bulls meet No. 6 Florida in Gainesville. The Gators, who are in their second season competing in the Big 12 after departing the American, were the No. 5 team in the country when they visited Corbett Stadium a year ago. UF kept the Bulls, in their fourth game as a program, at arm’s reach throughout an 18-11 win.
“I think it is another opportunity to show what we’ve been working on the past three years and how special this group is,” said redshirt junior Sofia Chepenik, when asked how meaningful it is to play the Gators, against whom she scored five goals in last season’s encounter. “I know that we can come out with the win, but it’s about putting together four quarters. It’s about staying consistent and playing at the level we want to play. It’s showcasing all of our hard work against a very good Florida team. Then we get to see who owns the state.”
Schedule winding down
Believe it or, there are only four regular season games remaining. The drive up I-75 to Gainesville will be followed by a Saturday afternoon (1:00) matchup with Charlotte at Corbett. East Carolina visits USF next Saturday (noon) in the final home game of 2026 in what is sure to be quite a Senior Day.
The Bulls travel to Vanderbilt for an April 25 meeting with the Commodores to complete the regular season. The following week, McCord’s squad returns to Nashville for the conference tournament, which Vandy is hosting.
While there is not much ahead of them as far as the schedule, so much could still be in front of this group of Bulls. Games like the one against Liberty, the first overtime game in the team’s short history, can help prepare them for what might be in store.
“I think it’s a really good learning experience because we can say that we’ve been in every situation,” said Chepenik, a 2025 unanimous American Conference First-Team performer who has 82 goals in 29 games with the Bulls after transferring from Clemson. “If anything, it just gives us confidence that we can finish any situation that we are in.”
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