LEXINGTON, Ky. ? The Kentucky women?s soccer team (2-0-1) brought the offense with two first half goals and an additional pair in the second half en route to a 4-1 home opening victory over the Evansville Purple Aces (2-1-0).
?We played okay,? said head coach Warren Lipka. ?Evansville tried to slow the pace down and they achieved it. We wanted to play at a higher pace and we did that in the second half, but we?re not where we need to be if we?re going to compete for SEC Championships.?
Kentucky wasted little time getting on the board with Callie Lanphier netting her first goal of the season and 10th of her career, nearly eight minutes into the match. Nicola Holdsworth played a ball down the left sideline that Sarah Gaunt centered to Lanphier who finished off the shot for the 1-0 UK lead.
The Purple Aces answered quickly when Nicole Moyen sailed a shot from 30 yards out into the upper right corner of the goal tying the score at 1-1.
Cindy Abbott reclaimed the lead for the Wildcats with 4:11 left in the first half when she took a shot off a centering pass from Kate Rowlands and looped it over the outstretched arms of Theresa Bagby for a 2-1 UK lead heading into the half. The goal was the first of Abbott?s collegiate career.
The Cats tacked on two insurance goals in the second half, getting scores from Laura Novikoff, her second of the season, and Alicia Browning, her first collegiate goal.
?We finished some goals that we didn?t finish this weekend,? said Lipka. ?We don?t have a prolific scorer like last year and we need several people to step up and that?s what happened tonight.?
The last time UK had four different players net goals was in a 7-0 rout of Eastern Kentucky on Sept. 1, 2006.
The Wildcats return to action on Friday night when they host the Bowling Green Falcons. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00. The first 100 fans through the gates will receive a free 2007 UK women?s soccer t-shirt while the first 500 fans will receive a women?s soccer schedule magnet. It will also be UK Student Night as the first 50 UK students through the gates will receive free hot dogs. Live stats are available at ukathletics.com.
