Aug. 21, 2010
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| Cat Scratches: Women’s Soccer opens 2010-11 Athletics Season with 4-0 Win | UK-Coastal Carolina Boxscore
LEXINGTON, KY – Kelsey Hunyadi had to sit out last season with a redshirt, but she made the most of her Kentucky debut, scoring two goals in leading the UK women’s soccer team to a 4-0 season opening win over Coastal Carolina.
Hunyadi transferred to UK from Louisville after playing two years with the Cardinals, where she earned Big East All-Freshman honors. She redshirted last season and was finally able to get on the field against an opponent different than her teammates.
“Those could by my only two goals of the season, or we could be adding to them; hopefully we’ll be adding to them. It was great to get out here with the team finally and just play. It was better playing a different opponent and coming together as a team, stepping on the field and coming off the field with a win.”
Hunyadi got the Cats going, recording her first career goal as a Wildcat in the 26th minute when Taylor Parker gathered up a loose ball on the far side of the field and centered it towards Hunyadi. Hunyadi then blasted a shot past Coastal goalie Jessica Barton who was advancing out on the play.
Hunyadi tallied her second goal of the night at the 35th minute off a UK corner kick. Alyssa Telang took the free kick for the Wildcats and positioned it perfectly in front the goal where Hunyadi was there for the Header and a 2-0 Kentucky lead.
“We’ve known (Kelsey) is a special player,” UK head coach Jon Lipsitz said. “Part of that is we’ve had a relationship for 13 years, where we trust each other and that’s very important. On top of that, she’s just a special, talented player. I think a lot of times when people are that talented, they don’t credited for their hard work. (People say) `Oh she’s so talented’ and we assume it’s natural. She’s worked hard, and she’s earned the opportunity to be in those positions and tonight she finished and obviously we hope that continues.”
Coastal had their best shot at getting on the scoreboard in 55th when Christina Stern had a clear look at the goal and fired off a shot, but UK goalie Sydney Hiance was there to haul it in.
Taylor Parker added to the score, tallying her first collegiate goal in the 56th minute. Ashley VanLandingham was streaking down the far side of the field and centered the ball towards Parker. A Coastal defender was tried to clear the pass, but misplayed it allowing Parker to scoop it up and put a shot past Barton for the 3-0 lead.
Caitlin Landis closed out the scoring with her first collegiate goal in the 74th minute off a pass from Kacie Kumar. Landis found herself with the ball towards the upper left 90 of the box and pushed a shot past Barton for the 4-0 lead.
The Wildcats outshot the Chanticleers 17-6, due in large part to their ability to possess the ball, one of the things Lipsitz constantly preaches to his team.
“Our ability to possess the ball means that we’re going to get opportunities,” said Lipsitz. “I thought one of the things Coastal did an amazing job at was making us go backward and you could hear their coaches saying `Make them go negative, make them go negative.’ What I pushed the team to do at halftime was `Don’t take what they give you; of course they want to make you go backwards, and it’s easy to keep possession when you go backwards, but we need to find feet going forwards and we need to be a little crisper in our movement up top.’ I thought we played much better in the second half and found feet.
“We have worked really hard for two weeks in preseason and we haven’t tapered for anything,” said Lipsitz. “We didn’t taper from our scrimmage last week; we certainly didn’t taper for this. The reason was, we felt like we could play a lot of players and work through our fitness and I’m really proud of the fact we played 22 players tonight. First and foremost this was a testament to how hard everyone has worked. We obviously had some players stand out and score some great goals but everyone has worked hard and everyone deserved to play.”
Kentucky returns to action on Friday, hosting the Indiana Hoosiers. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. and the first 100 UK students through the gates will receive a free hot dog. Free UK women’s soccer posters and schedule cards will also be available.
Kentucky Postgame Notes
The four goals for UK were the most tallied by the Wildcats since beating Cleveland State 4-0 in the 2008 season. It was also the most but UK in its season opener since recording six against Davidson in the 2003 lid lifter. Hunyadi’s two goals were the most by a Wildcat in a season opener since Elizabeth Ramsey netted a pair in the 2003 opener. It was also the first multi-goal game for a UK player since Laura Novikoff scored two against Oakland early in the 2008 season. Kentucky recorded 17 shots tonight. The Wildcats managed just 16 in its first three matches last year. UK’s 17 shots were the most since taking 31 against Mississippi State in the 2008 season. UK goalie Sydney Hiance was not credited for the shutout; however she did lower her career goals against average (GAA) to 1.25, moving her to fourth on UK’s all-time GAA list. Carrie Kuhnell (1995-98) ranks third at 1.16.
