ORANGE BEACH, AL ? The Kentucky women?s soccer team has found some offense to go with the SEC?s top rated defense as they defeated the 20th ranked Tennessee Lady Vols (8-7-5) 2-0 to earn a spot in Sunday?s SEC Championship.
After riding the defense the entire season, the Wildcats picked an opportune time to put together back-to-back multi goal games for the first time since their second and third matches of the season. The Kentucky offense coupled with senior goalie Anne Ogundele?s, SEC record tying, 14th shutout of the season put the Wildcats in the SEC title game for the second time in program history and the first time since 1995.
The Wildcats (13-6-3) cracked the scoreboard first on a Megan Jones goal at the 53:29 mark. Jones controlled a loose ball on the left side of the goal and fired a shot off her left foot from 15 yards out that Tennessee goalie Sarah Kitchin couldn?t handle for a 1-0 UK lead. It was Jones? fifth goal of the season and the seventh of her career.
Kentucky struck again in the 65th minute when Giuleana Lopez played a through ball to Sarah Gaunt who beat Kitchin and provided the Cats with a 2-0 lead and her fourth goal of the season.
?I give Tennessee credit, they were coming at us and coming at us, but our defense has been doing it all year,? said head coach Warren Lipka. ?I think they did a great job of not giving (Tennessee) any great looks, they had some shots, but I don?t think they had any quality shots that caused us too many problems. I think our transition in the 2nd half is what made the difference; our transition into the attack from defending was faster, the passing was much better and obviously our finishing was better.?
While the Lady Vols controlled the first half, out shooting the Wildcats 8-2, Kentucky came out and controlled the second half out shooting Tennessee 4-3 and earning the lone corner kick of the half.
?I thought we didn?t spread the field out very much in the first half,? said Lipka. ?We were playing too much down the middle and not spreading out and opening up. In the second half we opened the game up a little and stretched it out in the second half and that gave us more attacking opportunities.?
Tennessee provided a flurry of action in front of the Wildcat goal in the 31st minute when Kristen Doukakis took a solid shot on what appeared to be an empty net but Megan Jones came in to make the save. The Lady Vols weren?t finished though as two minutes later, Kylee Rossi scored an apparent goal, but Tennessee was called for a handball just prior to the shot negating the goal and preserving the scoreless tie.
In addition to her SEC record tying performance, Anne Ogundele also moved to second on Kentucky’s all-time minutes played list among goalies with 5,450:53. That’s 24 seconds ahead of Beth Wells (1997-01).
The Wildcats will close out tournament action on Sunday in the championship game against Florida, who defeated South Carolina, 2-0, in Friday’s other semifinal match. Sunday?s match is scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff and will be televised live on Fox Sports Net. The winner will receive the league?s automatic bid to the 2006 NCAA Tournament.
