It wasn't the way the Florida State Seminoles wanted to open the 1999 season.

	Marte Vik Edvardsen had a goal and an assist against South Florida.

Not against their in-state rival. And especially not against the defending NCAA champion.

But the schedule was already set. And after the Florida State women's soccer team traveled to Gainesville, Florida promptly routed the Seminoles 5-1. After the game, Florida unveiled its national championship banner in front of 5,500 rowdy fans. Even Gator football coach Steve Spurrier came out for the celebration, which Florida fans probably remember as all fun and hardly a game.

"We walked into the buzz saw and got hammered in every aspect of the game," recalled Florida State coach Patrick Baker. "It definitely wasn't the way we wanted to start the season."

Or any season. And after Florida State was scheduled to open this season against Florida, Baker was scared that history would repeat itself. This time, however, a goal with less than two minutes to play helped the unranked Seminoles score their first win over the Gators as the 2000 season opened last Friday.

AROUND THE COUNTRY

Florida wasn't the only top 10 team to lose during the season's first week. Maryland's Sara Gustafson scored a hat trick to lead the Terps to a 3-1 upset of Penn State, ranked No. 4 by SoccerTimes.com but No. 2 by Soccer America. Here's the rest of the latest happenings around the country: In the ACC: It's a bit early for in-state rivalries, but Virginia got the best of William & Mary in a 3-0 victory Saturday, which also gave first-year Cav coach Steve Swanson his first career win in Charlottesville. Virginia faces North Carolina on Friday. Speaking of the Tar Heels, don't get excited if you manage to score an early goal against them this season. Although Texas scored just 40 seconds into both teams' season opener last week, UNC fought back for a 9-2 rout. The Tar Heels also fought a one-goal deficit for a 4-1 win over Texas A&M. In the Big Ten: Iowa's Linzy Wolman was named the conference player of the week after scoring three goals and notching an assist in a 5-0 win over Wisconsin-Green Bay and adding a goal and an assist in a 3-0 victory over Northern Illinois. In the Big 12: Nebraska's off to a hot start, and at 3-0 is the only perfect team left in the conference. Iowa State is 1-0-1. Baylor forward Molly Cameron scored two goals -- her first since Nov. 6, 1998, as she missed the entire 1999 season to injury, -- to become Baylor's all-time leader with 57 career goals. In the Pac-10: Pac-10 coaches picked UCLA as the preseason favorite, and although conference play doesn't begin until October, the Bruins already have suffered a loss -- 1-0 to higher-ranked Clemson last weekend. UCLA edged Stanford -- which opened the season with a 4-0 win over St. Mary's (Calif.) -- by just three points in the Pac-10 preseason coaches poll. Heading north, Washington got off to a quick start, routing Eastern Washington 8-0 as 1999 all-conference first-team pick Tami Bennett notched her second career hat trick with three first-half goals. UW followed it up with a 1-0 upset of No. 19 BYU on Tuesday. If you have any story ideas, or simply want to add us to your distribution list, contact us at ncaa@espn.com.

Florida State's 3-2 victory not only marked the Noles' first win over Florida, but also their first victory against a nationally ranked opponent (Florida was ranked as high as sixth in one poll). And after Florida State added a 2-1 overtime win over South Florida, the 'Noles on Sunday received their first national ranking, breaking into the Soccer America and American Soccer Writers polls.

"It was just a phenomenal weekend, a fantastic start for us," Baker said. "There's nothing better than opening the season with a win against a team with such a high ranking, let alone your arch rival."

Securing the team's first national ranking wasn't so bad, either, especially as Florida State jumped past Florida in this week's Soccer America top 20 poll. The Seminoles debuted at No. 18. The Gators, meanwhile, dropped from No. 6 to No. 19. In the American Soccer Writers poll, Florida State debuted at No. 23.

Although the ranking is certainly meaningful, Baker said the Seminoles' ability to come from behind in both games was perhaps an even bigger achievement.

After Florida scored to take a 1-0 lead, the Gators didn't touch the ball again until they were digging the ball out of the back of the net. The Seminoles again immediately evened the score after the Gators went up 2-1.

"After that first goal went in, some people might have momentarily thought we were done," he said. "But since we tied the game within 30 seconds, we never had time to stop believing in ourselves."

All five goals came in the final 13 minutes, including April Murphy's game-winner in the 89th minute. Florida State trailed 2-1 before finding the back of the net twice over the game's final 10:54. Murphy scored the game-winner after sending a loose ball, which had deflected off of Florida goalkeeper Jordan Kellgren, in from nine yards.

The Seminoles' were 0-5 against Florida, the 1998 NCAA champion, in the schools' previous meetings.

Baker said the good start is especially rewarding to Florida State's six seniors.

"It felt so good to call some of our players (Sunday) and tell them we were ranked," said Baker, who's in his second season at Florida State. "There's nothing better for these upperclassmen, who have toiled through so many different things, than to be nationally ranked in the first week of their senior year."

Florida State, a program that's only five years old, has had its share of growing pains, and is coming off of three consecutive losing seasons. Florida State last posted a winning season in 1996. This season, however, the Seminoles' freshman class is ranked No. 13 nationally by Soccer Buzz.

"We were just holding on last year, just trying to play the game close, but now we have the right mix of players who can push us over the edge," Baker said. "The mixture's just trying to jell quicker than we thought."

The improvement truly rings of a team effort. During the offseason, Baker and his coaching staff sat down with Florida State's football and baseball recruiting coordinators.

"We have some great coaches here at Florida State, like (football) coach Bobby Bowden and (baseball) coach Mike Martin, and we wanted to know what they're doing to make their programs so successful," Baker said. "We know we're dealing with different sports and different types of athletes, but we were able to take some things from them.

Still, Baker and the 'Noles are far from content.

"We don't want to go back to where we've been, we don't want to be the ugly duckling in the ACC," Baker said. "We've been perceived as not being a very good team for so long, but we're trying to change that perception."

So far, so good.

Melanie Jackson is the college sports editor at ESPN.com.