After taking an early 1-0 lead, it looked as if the Kentucky women?s soccer team (2-2-0) was going to cruise to victory over Louisville, but the Cardinals (3-0-1) rallied to defeat the Cats 2-1 in double-overtime.
With the match tied 1-1 through the first 100 minutes, leading Louisville point scorer Jamie Craft split two Kentucky defenders and beat Wildcat goalie Anne Ogundele at the 104:36 mark to give the Cardinals their first ever win over Kentucky.
The Wildcats wasted no time getting on the board when Sarah Gaunt scored her second goal of the season in the fourth minute of play. Katie Fahey led Gaunt with a perfect pass and Gaunt then beat Louisville goalie Deana Waintraub for the goal and a 1-0 Kentucky lead.
The Cardinals had an opportunity for the tie 10 minutes later when Craft took a shot from seven yards out, but Ogundele was able to punch the ball away. Ogundele came up big again in the 36th minute when Craft fired a shot from the 18, but the UK senior goalie jumped high, knocking the shot over the goal to keep it a 1-0 affair.
UL tied the match at 1-1 in the 68th minute when Monique Gjini fired a shot from 25 yards out that was able to scoot just out of the reach of Ogundele inside the left post.
The two teams remained deadlocked through the rest of regulation and the first overtime despite a scoring opportunity for the Cardinals in the first extra period when, at the 96:57 mark, Craft was denied by yet another acrobatic save from Ogundele.
?We lost our composure,? said Kentucky head coach Warren Lipka. ?We didn?t hold the lead very well; we gave them a lot of chances to score. We have to learn to play with the lead with confidence. I felt good about our chances in overtime, but there was just a miscommunication off a goal kick that led to their goal.?
The Wildcats will return to action on Friday when they begin a big weekend, hosting two high powered Big 10 teams. Kentucky will entertain the Ohio State Buckeyes on Friday night, followed by a Sunday afternoon match with the Michigan Wolverines.
