By Jacob Most
Aug. 29, 2014 – DAYTON, Ohio – The Kentucky men’s soccer team dropped the regular season-opener 1-0 on a 53rd-minute strike by Wright State midfielder Zach Zwiesler on Friday.
Zweisler got on the end of a crossed set-piece from defensive midfielder Gustav Svensson to find the back of the net for the only time on a cool evening at Wright State’s Alumni Field.
Kentucky’s best shot at an equalizer came on 87 minutes.
Andrew McKelvey grazed the outside of the left post from just inside the 18 with a strike across the face of goal. The freshman’s shot from two-yards inside the box traveled across the goal and just wide.
Kentucky outshot Wright State 10-9 in what was at times an up-and-down affair, although Wright State had more of the clear-cut chances.
“I thought it was a really good college game,” head coach Johan Cedergren said. “You have to give a lot of credit to Coach Davis and his staff. They really had their team fired up and ready to go. In the end with lots of energy, a big crowd, lots of second balls, set pieces really matter and that kind of stuff.
“We didn’t do quite enough. I told the guys right after the game it’s an 18-game season. We didn’t expect to go undefeated. We did a lot of things well, but we weren’t able to get a goal, and we lost a goal on a set-piece … Hopefully it was a good lesson, and now we just have to get ready for Sunday.”
Callum Irving, a preseason All-Conference-USA selection made three solid saves in 90 minutes.
While Wright State had the better of the early chances in the first half, UK controlled the game in the latter stages of the opening 45.
Nonetheless, Wright State missed a couple of sitters in the first few minutes after the break before Zweisler broke the deadlock.
Kentucky struggled to recover in the initial stages after Wright State’s opener, but as the game wore on and UK poured numbers into Wright State’s, half more and more chances came.
UK created at least five chances in the last 10 minutes, with McKelvey’s close-call the best of them, but the Wildcats were never able to knot things up.
The Wildcats dropped to 13-10-1 all-time in regular season openers. Wright State improved to 3-0-3 against UK all-time.
Kentucky will host Belmont in the regular season home-opener on Sunday at 5 p.m. The match will be part of the Grand Opening of the Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer Complex featuring a double header with both the UK women’s and men’s soccer teams in action.
The Bell Soccer Complex will officially be dedicated with ceremonies commencing at Noon ET on the main staircases.
