LEXINGTON ? After 110 minutes of soccer Friday night, Kentucky and Indiana walked off the field at the UK Soccer Complex with a 0-0 tie in front of the 2,458 fans, the second largest crowd in school history.
?Both teams played very well,? said Kentucky coach Ian Collins. ?IU is a quality team and tonight was a real test for our players, but I thought they worked their tail off. I thought both teams did.?
The fans were treated to a tightly contested defensive affair as each team played it close to the vest. There were only 23 total shots and just eight made it on goal.
?It was a good game and there was a lot of respect between both teams,? Collins said. ?Maybe 0-0 was a fair result.?
The close contest was nothing new for the two schools which have now taken four of their last seven contests into a second overtime. It was the seventh time in eight games in the series that the game was decided by one goal or less.
?This is always a tough game. You always want to win, but tonight I think both teams walked off with some satisfaction,? Collins said.
Brian Plotkin provided most of the chances for Indiana (7-2-1) with six shots, including three that Kentucky (7-3-2) goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum was forced to make saves on.
Jamal Shteiwi and Thomas Senecal fired four and three shots, respectively, to pace the Wildcat attack. Shteiwi?s best opportunity came in the second overtime when he bent a free kick just wide of the left post from 30 yards out.
?There weren?t a lot of clear cut chances in the game,? Collins said. ?Towards the end there I thought Jamal might have won the game for us by sneaking it in.?
Senecal looked to have the winner in the 79th minute on a header in the box, but Jay Nolly made a tremendous diving save at the left post. Riley O?Neill also had a great chance from ten yards out midway through the first half but booted the ball high over the net.
Kentucky came out in a 5-4-1 for the first time this year and protected its zone to hold the Indiana attack in check. Most of the Wildcats chances were on the counterattack.
?We?ve got some guys that haven?t played in this game before so we sat back a little deeper than we normally would. It was all by design,? said Collins.
The majority of the first half flowed back and forth as the teams played tentatively. Indiana was limited to just three shots while Kentucky fired two in the frame.
After opening strong in the second half, the Hoosiers settled back and the teams forced overtime. The first overtime was owned by Indiana as it got off four shots and kept pressure on the Kentucky defense throughout.
However, the Wildcats did not wilt, as the back row continued to contain the Hoosier offense. Gruenebaum continued to come up big with one of his five saves in the period. It was his second straight shutout and fourth this season.
Neither team went to the bench much as Kentucky played just one player off the bench while Indiana played two.
?To be fair to us ? and I think IU is the same way ? we don?t go 16 or 17 deep,? Collins noted. ?We subbed one guy and they subbed two guys, so a lot of players played a lot of minutes. Both teams were spent at the end of the night.?
The tie comes on the heels of a heartbreaking 1-0 overtime loss to No. 13 Michigan this past Friday that snapped the Wildcats school-record 10-game unbeaten streak and a 3-0 win over Buffalo.
Kentucky returns to action Sunday when it hosts Northern Illinois at 2:30 p.m. The game is the second of a doubleheader that will feature the women?s team playing at Noon.
