Kentucky Downs No. 9 Arkansas in Fayetteville
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Kentucky women’s
soccer team got its first road top-10 win in over three years on Sunday
afternoon as the Wildcats earned goals in each half to beat the No. 9 Arkansas
Razorbacks, 2-1, at Razorback Field.
The win over a top-10 team on the road is just
the sixth in program history in the first since a 4-2 defeat of No. 10 West
Virginia in Morgantown back in 2013. Sunday’s win is the first Southeastern
Conference win for UK in 2016 as the Wildcats improve to 5-8-4 overall and
1-6-3 in SEC play.
“I have been coaching for 34 years, and I have
never been prouder of a team than I am of this team today,” UK head coach Jon
Lipsitz said. “With everything that has gone against us, this team could have
packed it in the last two matches of the season. They said that we may have nothing
in the standings to play for, but we have to play for pride and love for one
another. On the road, against a top-10 team, we played as well as we have all
year for 90 minutes and played with incredible guts and effort. Now we go home
and celebrate this incredible senior class on Thursday night. I have tremendous
respect for Arkansas and (head coach) Colby Hale. We will be cheering for them
in the NCAA Tournament.”
The loss for Arkansas is its first home defeat
all season.
The scoring opened against the run of play in
the 24th minute as senior captain Kaitlin Miller scored her fourth goal of the
season to put the Wildcats ahead, 1-0. Miller was served in a ball from Zoe Swift,
who tallied her team-leading fifth assist of the season along the left flank
and the ball came across the face of goal along the six and Miller finished
with her right foot back across the goalkeeper’s body to the far post for a 1-0
lead.
Arkansas responded like you would expect a
top-10 team to do on its home pitch, as the Razorbacks equalized 10 minutes
later in the 34th minute through the eighth goal of Lindsey Mayo with Erika
Miller getting the assist. The goal for the Razorbacks made the match 1-1
heading into halftime.
The Wildcats came out and really pressed in
the second half, earning all five of its corner kicks in the second 45.
Swift scored her sixth goal of the season in
the 67th minute, in what turned out to be the eventual match-winning goal.
Swift was served a ball over top the heads of the centerbacks of Arkansas and
from the left side, where Swift was waiting in front of goal for the lovely finish.
Junior Tanya Samarzich started the goal-scoring threat in the run of play with
a ball wide outside to Crosetti, who served in the ball to Swift for the
match-winner.
Not to be overlooked was the play of senior
goalkeeper Ayanna Parker, who was filling in for Evangeline Soucie (injury) and
had simply a brilliant game in net, making two unbelievable saves in the dying
minutes of the match to preserve the 1-0 win. Parker picked up her first-career
SEC win, saving five of the six shots that she faced and playing all 90 minutes
of a match for the fifth time in her career.
“Four years of hard work culminated into 90
minutes of leadership, courage and game-winning goalkeeping today,” Ian Carry
said. “I’m really proud of her today.”
The Wildcats will play one final match in 2016
on Thursday night against the Georgia Bulldogs at the Bell Soccer Complex at
7:30 p.m. ET. The match will be shown live on the SEC Network+, ESPN3 and the
WatchESPN app with Neil Price (pxp) and Stuart Pope (color) calling the action.
Thursday will also be Senior Night, as Kentucky will honor its seven graduating
seniors with a pre-match ceremony beginning around 7:15 p.m. ET.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s soccer team, follow @UKWomensSoccer on Twitter,
Instagram and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
