Aug. 25, 2002
Fort Wayne, Ind. — The University of Kentucky women’s soccer team took No. 7 Notre Dame to the final minute of play but an Ashley Dryer goal with 40 seconds remaining gave the Fighting Irish a 2-1 victory in the IPFW/adidas Soccer Showcase on the Hefner Soccer Fields Sunday.
“It was a huge improvement from Friday night,” Coach Warren Lipka said. “That’s the goal in the preason – to improve from your first game and we did that. We outshot our opponent, we had more corner kicks and we defended better. It was a huge step forward for us in getting ready for Friday’s season opener.”
Notre Dame dented the net first when Amy Warner found a streaking Amanda Guertin at the top of the box at 7:24 in the first period. The junior forward maneuvered between two Wildcat defenders and launched a 15-footer that connected to the upper-right corner out of the reach of UK goalie Liz Butler. However, the Fighting Iris lead would hold for only 20 seconds as the Wildcats charged aggressively toward the UND goal on the ensuing play. Keri Boyce got the Wildcats on the board when the All-Southeastern Conference forward slipped a shot to the bottom left corner past Erika Bohn to even the score at 7:42 in the first half.
The Wildcats had their chances to break the tie but were unable to capitalize on several scoring opportunities. With five minutes remaining in the match, Boyce passed to Elizabeth Ramsey along the left flank and in turn, sent a cross to a diving Erin Witchey in front of the UND goal. The crossing pass sailed past Witchey out of bounds to keep the score locked at one goal apiece. The Fighting Irish earned the game winner at 89:16 when Warner passed to Dryer and connected from 15 out to the upper-right of the net.
Kentucky will officially begin the 2002 season next weekend at the Missouri Nike Challenge in Columbia, Mo., when it will face traditional rival Indiana on Friday, Aug. 30 at 6 p.m. ET and Illinois on Sunday, Aug. 25 at 6 p.m. ET.
12FKentucky101Notre Dame112Scoring: Guertin, UND assist by Warner (7:24), Boyce, UK assist by Weakley (7:42), Dryer, UND assist by Warner (89:16)Shots: UK 10, UND 8Saves: UK 3, UND 7Corner Kicks: UK 6, UND 4Fouls: UK 18, UND 16
– UK –
