The Kentucky Women?s Soccer team completed their second play date of the spring season on Sunday when they participated at the Indiana University Invite coming away with a 1-0-2 mark.
The Cats got things started when they faced off with the host Hoosiers. After 50 minutes, the scrimmage ended in a 0-0 tie. Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Laura Baker recorded four saves in her return to her home state to preserve the shutout for UK.
The Cats faced the Dayton Flyers next and again fought to a scoreless draw with Baker coming up big once again tallying five saves. One sequence saw the six-foot net minder turn away a point blank shot, only to have to get back up to deny the Dayton attacker again with another close range save.
Kentucky finally found the back of the net in their third contest of the day against the Indiana State Sycamores. Junior Megan Jones found fellow junior Caitlin Coughlin on the right side who in turn found a wide open Katie Fahey at the top of the penalty box. The freshman out of Ft. Wright, KY calmly turned and buried the shot to give the Cats a 1-0 lead early. UK?s Callie Lanphier used her speed to earn a corner kick which led to the Cats? second goal. Sophomore Kristin Kover earned an assist when she found junior Kate Rowlands? head on the corner kick. Rowlands soared above and headed the ball past the Sycamore goalkeeper. The Cats earned the 3-0 victory when a Kover corner kick again paid off. This time it was redshirt freshman Jordan Freiberg redirecting the ball to the back of the net. Baker made one save in the match.
The Wildcat defense has yet to concede a goal this spring after playing seven shortened games.
?We were happy with some of the individual performances out there today,? said assistant coach Jerrod Roh, who coached the team along with fellow assistant Erica Whatley in Head Coach Warren Lipka?s absence. Lipka was on recruiting assignment overseas. ?We played three solid opponents today, and to not give up a goal is a testament to our team?s commitment to defend. Laura (Baker) had to come up big for us a couple times, and it is nice to know that she is up to that challenge when we need her.?
?Our primary objective was to give each of our players quality playing time today for their personal development,? said Whatley. ?The formation we played allowed us to do that. There is definitely still plenty of work ahead for our players to continue to improve in areas that have been discussed with each of them. While we were not excited about the first two results, it was still a valuable day for many of our players.?
The Cats move to 5-0-2 this spring and will continue their off-season training program for the next couple weeks before Spring Break. Upon their return, they will have a week of practice before they face SEC rival Vanderbilt in Paducah, Ky. on Saturday, March 24th to resume their spring schedule.
