Aug. 26, 2011
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LEXINGTON, Ky. – The UK women’s soccer team (3-0-0) extended their season-opening winning streak to three games on Friday, defeating the Ohio Bobcats (1-2-0) 2-1 at the UK Soccer Complex.
After a slow start in the first half, Kentucky came out roaring, taking a 1-0 lead one minute into the second half.
“I thought we played fantastic in the second half,” UK head coach Jon Lipsitzsaid. “It was our best half of the year by far.”
Senior captain Kelsey Hunyadi took a pass from freshman Molly Huberand found herself one-on-one with the Ohio keeper. Hunyadi buried the shot for her third goal of the season, spotting the Cats a 1-0 lead.
Freshman Stuart Pope netted the eventual game-winner on a beautiful play set up by Hunyadi and Taylor Parker. Hunyadi, who controlled the ball at the top of the box, sent it along the top of the box to Parker, who flicked it forward and wide perfectly to Pope, who buried it for her first collegiate goal and a 2-0 lead.
Ohio negated UK goalie Kayla Price’ssecond shutout of the season when they netted a goal with just over two minutes to play.
The Wildcat offense did manage to record 16 shots in the match, led by Hunyadi’s game-high three, but it wasn’t the complete effort Lipsitz was looking for.
“Well I don’t think we played extremely well in the first half,” Lipsitz said. “One of the things I’m really proud of is that we were able to put some really important things in the first half and they played really well in the second half. One of the things I told them is that we made a mistake of giving up a goal late in the second half when we were really in control of the game.”
The win marks the second straight year the Wildcats have opened 3-0-0. Kentucky’s best start to a season was in 2001 when the Cats won their first seven out of the gate.
UK’s longest undefeated streak to start a season was in 2005, when the Cats didn’t lose until the 12th game of the season. However, they did play to six ties during that stretch.
The win also marked the most wins by Kentucky in the month of August, besting the previous high of two set in 2000, ’09 and ’10.
UK is also now 4-0-0 against Ohio and remains undefeated against schools from the Mid-American Conference, at 9-0-1.
Kentucky returns to action on Friday, traveling to Louisville to take part in the Courtyard by Marriott Airport Cardinal Classic. The Wildcats will take on Central Michigan Friday in a 5:00 p.m. ET match followed by a Sunday match against Baylor.
