Near Misses Define Sunday as Kentucky Drops to Pepperdine
MALIBU, California. – The Pepperdine Waves
scored a goal in the first half and two in the second half, combined with a
shutout in net to knock off the Kentucky women’s soccer team, 3-0 in Malibu on
Sunday afternoon.
The Wildcats were much better with the ball in
the second half, dictating the pace of play and having much more of the ball
and scoring chances in the second 45 minutes. Pepperdine, known for being
deadly on the counter, used that expertise to their advantage on Sunday,
scoring each of their first two goals off of Kentucky giveaways that resulted
in counters.
Kentucky will open its home slate of matches
on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. ET from the Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer
Complex in Lexington. The match will be shown live on the SEC Network+, ESPN3
and the WatchESPN app. Free pizza will be available to all UK students in
attendance of the match.
Fans can purchase season ticket scarves from
the UK Ticket Office by logging on to UKathletics.com/tickets or by calling
(800) 928-2287 or locally at (859) 257-1818. The purchase of one (1) season
ticket is good for entry for one person to each game.
In the first half of a fairly-evenly played
match, a Kentucky miscommunication along the backline resulted in a turnover
and the Waves’ Rylee Baisden intercepted the ball and had a 1v1 with Kentucky
goalkeeper Evangeline Soucie (0-1-1) and slotted it to Soucie’s left for the
goal.
At halftime, Kentucky trailed 1-0 with
Pepperdine holding a 9-4 lead in shots and 3-2 edge in shots on goal.
In the second half, Kentucky had much of the
ball for the first 25 minutes and was playing through its midfield much more
consistently, but Pepperdine against capitalized on a giveaway after Kentucky
had two golden scoring opportunities by LaMaya Williams and Kelly Novak go
wide. The goal Pepperdine scored was in the 68th minute, and is was
Baisden’s second of the match and third of the season.
UK then transitioned into a three back, and
moved centerback Zoe Swift back up top to try and go for a result and after two
corners and a few more misses, Pepperdine got a free kick 25 yards from goal,
and after the initial clearance, the Waves got organized and pinged Kentucky’s
defense for a third goal.
Pepperdine outshot the Wildcats 18-9 and each
team recorded three saves in the match. The Waves, who knocked off No. 16
Arizona 3-1 to start the season on Friday night, move to 2-0-0 on the season.
UK drops to 0-1-1 after Sunday’s result.
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.
