Co-captain Katherine Sheeleigh, shown here in previous action, will be dribbling the ball under the Floridian sun as the Crimson will travel down south to face the Universities of Central and South Florida.

As the saying goes, “To be the best, one must play the best.”

That’s why the players on the Harvard women’s soccer team pulled out their tickets, I.D.s, suitcases, and sunscreen yesterday as the Crimson (1-0-1) headed off to Florida for two weekend match-ups against University of Central Florida and University of South Florida.

“These are very good teams,” Harvard coach Ray Leone said. “UCF was the conference champion and they went to the Elite Eight last year which is incredible, and South Florida is one of the up-and-coming-teams of the Big East, so they have a strong conference too. It’s going to be a huge challenge for us.”

“Hopefully my Floridians will step it up in their own backyard,” Leone added.

His team never having played against the UCF Knights (3-1-0) or the USF Bulls (4-1-0), Leone developed this trip as a way for three of his six seniors to showcase their skills in front of family and friends.

“This is really exciting for me to go back home,” co-captain and Florida native Gina Wideroff said. “My family will be able to drive there and I know a lot of players on both teams, so it’ll be exciting to play against them in a college atmosphere instead of just club soccer.”

Senior Kerry Kartsonis, another Florida native, agrees with Wideroff’s statement, especially since very few of her high school and club teammates venture into the New England area.

“We’re all from Florida and we play games in the northeast and we don’t know any other players in the northeast so it’ll be great to have some fan support from friends who go to those schools,” she said.

The weather and palm trees don’t hurt either.

“I checked [the weather] last night,” Wideroff said. “Hot. I think the toughest part will be the recovery, being able to recover after that 7pm game and then turning around to play at noon on Sunday in the heat of the day. As far as the soccer goes, we’ll try to work on whatever went wrong in Friday’s game, but mainly just the recovery process in this heat.”

The Crimson’s first face-off Friday night features an opponent that’s on a three-game winning streak and has outscored its opponents 7-3 in four matches this season. The last time Harvard met UCF on the field in 1981, the Knights grabbed a 2-0 victory in its first season as a varsity sport.

“We haven’t been focused as much on them as we are about what we’re trying to do, and we’re just continuing to try to improve our style of play and move the ball a lot faster than we’ve been moving because the games we’re going to be playing this weekend are going to be fast,” Leone said.

Less than two days later, the Crimson takes on the Bulls for the first time in school history. USF, which lost to Notre Dame in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament last year, packs an aggressive offensive punch led by junior Chelsea Klotz, who scored seven goals in the last five games, three of which were game-winners.

“UCF is pretty strong as is USF so it’ll be exciting,” Leone said. “A good test for us, a good challenge.”

“They’re just like any other team,” Wideroff added. “Hopefully we’ll do well. It’ll be a good game but we’re treating them just like any other opponent.”

Coming off of a win last Sunday against a more northern opponent, New Hampshire, the Harvard squad isn’t just excited about the southern weather but about continuing the momentum as well.

“We’ve just been trying to maintain a fluid system and work on different formations and how to defend and attack set pieces, just trying to tie everything together,” Kartsonis said. “I know everyone from Florida is excited, but the team is excited too. We have two games under our belt now so I think we’re ready to get the ball going.”

—Staff writer Alex Sopko can be reached at sopko@fas.harvard.edu.