Oct. 1, 2010

ATHENS, Ga. – The UK women’s soccer team (6-4-1, 0-2-1 SEC) earned its first point of the conference season after playing to a 1-1 draw with No. 17 ranked Georgia Bulldogs (6-2-3, 1-0-2) in Athens.

It was the first overtime match for the young UK team, and they answered the call on the road.

“Georgia is a fantastic team; they’re as good as any team we played this year,” said UK head coach Jon Lipsitz. “It was a great game to be a part of that’s for sure. I think it’s the first time this year we put together an entire game from beginning to end. We played as hard as we could play and that’s part of the growth of this team. And to do it when we’ve lost some very important players to injury when we’ve had to make so many changes, I’m really proud of them. We’ve been saying to them from the beginning that everybody has to be ready and I think every player was tremendously important to us both on and off the field.”

The stats showed the balance of the match with both team earning seven shots on goal.

“Even though we only scored one goal, we created some amazing opportunities,” Lipsitz said. “(Caitlin) Landis missed an open goal and also had a ball saved behind the goalkeeper that we thought was in. I think that while we’d like to score more goals, the one positive we take from this, is that we created some very good opportunities against one of the best defenses in the country.”

The Wildcats struck first on Kelsey Hunyadi’s team leading sixth goal of the season in the 10th minute. Landis controlled the ball deep in the Georgia zone and sent a pass to her left to Hunyadi. Hunyadi settled the bouncing ball, beat a Bulldog defender and sent a shot towards the left post. Georgia goalie Ashley Baker was able to get a hand on the ball, but not enough as the ball slipped just inside the post for the 1-0 UK lead.

The Bulldogs scored the equalizer in the 38th minute when Nicole Locandro knocked a pass back out of the 18-yard box to an advancing Alexa Newfield who blistered a shot through the UK defense and past Sydney Hiance for her third goal of the season and 1-1 score.

Georgia nearly took the lead six minutes into the second half when Laura Eddy who was wide open, fired a shot that hit off the crossbar and was cleared away by the Wildcat defense.

UK had a tremendous opportunity to take the lead in the 70th minute. Landis took a pass and had an open look at the empty goal, as Baker had come out to intercept the pass. Landis dribbled once around Baker, but touched the ball a little harder than she intended, forcing her to take a diving shot. Georgia defender Torri Allen had rotated back to protect the open goal, made the back save and cleared the ball away.

UK’s Taylor Parker had an opportunity to end the match with in the first overtime. A loose ball was bouncing around at the top of the 18-yard box and Parker got a solid shot on the ball, but it was right at Baker for the save.

There’s little rest for the weary as the Cats travel to Knoxville to take on another one of the top offensive teams in the league. Lipsitz feels the team will be fine emotionally, coming off the tie, but from a physical standpoint, he expressed some concern.

“Emotionally I’d say it’s easy, because emotionally we’ve got a positive and we feel good,” Lipsitz said. “Physically, recovery will be difficult. Once again, we’ll need every one to be ready. We’ll have to have good possession to make sure we’re letting the ball do some of the work but more than that we just have to have the same courage that we played with tonight.”

Sunday’s match against the Lady Vols is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. Live stats will be available at UKathletics.com.

UK Post Game Notes

• Kentucky scored first for the seventh time this season. UK is 5-1-1 in games that they scored first.
• The teams entered halftime tied 1-1. UK’s record when tied at the half is 1-2-1.
• UK played in its first overtime match this season and its first overtime match since tying Arkansas 0-0 on Oct. 11 of last season.
• It was UK’s 79th all-time overtime match. Kentucky is 25-21-33 in overtime.
• Kelsey Hunyadi’s sixth goal was the most for UK since Laura Novikoff netted six in the 2008 season.
• Caitlin Landis attempted five shots pushing her season total to 34, ranking her eighth on UK’s freshman shot list.