Kentucky Can’t Convert Overtime Chances, Draws with Alabama
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky women’s soccer team
outshot the Alabama Crimson Tide 28-18, had two extremely opportunistic scoring
chances in both overtime sessions, but were unable to score in extra time as
the Wildcats and Tide played to a thrilling 1-1 draw at the Bell Soccer Complex
in Lexington on Sunday.
With the result, Kentucky moves to 4-3-2 on
the year overall and picks up its first Southeastern Conference point of the
season to move to 0-1-1 in the league. Alabama moves to 6-2-1 overall and now
sits on four points in the SEC table at 1-0-1 in conference action.
Sunday was UK’s annual Kick-Cancer Match with
UK dawning Nike volt jerseys to represent UK’s support in the fight against
pediatric cancer. All of those jerseys will be auctioned off for sale beginning
at $50 per jersey at UKathletics.com. The proceeds will go to the fight for a
cure of pediatric cancer.
The auction site is now live and can be found
here: https://www.fanaticsauctions.com/Kentucky-Wildcats-cat1009.html.
The auction will close next Sunday, Sept. 26.
Alabama struck first late in the second half
after being outshot 15-5 in the opening period when Abbie Boswell’s fifth goal
of the season put the Tide on top sitting on 75 minutes off a counter. Alabama’s
Logue Shamburger got wide and pushed a pass to the wide side, and then a cross
to the feet of Boswell for the goal to put the Tide ahead against the run of
play.
Kentucky would equalize in the 85th minute off
a corner kick from junior Katy Keen, after Alabama was whistled for a handball
in the box. Zoe Swift got the ball on the left flank in space and played a
cross atop the center of the box that hit off the hand of an Alabama defender
and the Tide were penalized for a handball.
Katy Keen took a hold of the ball and calmly
struck the PK home to make it 1-1. It was her second goal of the season.
In the overtime session, Kentucky had a
scoring chance inside the first two minutes as Tanya Samarzich got in behind
the Alabama defense, but her left-footed shot just skewed wide to the left and
tampered with the outside netting to keep the match level at 1-1.
In the second overtime session, a cross came
to the feet of Keen from Foster Ignoffo, who had a wide open net at the top of
the box, and hammered one that just went wide – citing the theme of the match
for Kentucky.
The Wildcats had three different players
record a season-high five shots, including Zoe Swift, Marissa Bosco and Kaitlin
Miller. UK earned a season high six corner kicks in the first half – but did
not get another corner swipe in the final 65 minutes of play.
Kentucky will now travel to South Carolina on
Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. ET for a night match with the Missouri Tigers. The match will be shown live on the SEC Network+, ESPN3 and the
WatchESPN app.
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.
