Oct. 16, 2011
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LEXINGTON, Ky. – On a blustery day that saw constant winds around 20 mph, the UK women’s soccer team surrendered a late goal in dropping a 2-1 heartbreaker to the Georgia Bulldogs (12-4-0, 6-2-0 Southeastern Conference) at the UK Soccer Complex.
Trailing 1-0 in the 76th minute, Arin Gilliland headed home the equalizer off a perfect service from Kacie Kumar. The play started with a cleared corner kick off the foot of Alyssa Telang. Georgia goalie Ashley Baker punched the ball out where Kumar ran it down and sent the service into Gilliland.
“We worked a lot recently on serving in the box and sort of finding the hotspots on a serve,” head coach Jon Lipsitzsaid. “We had a set piece and it bounced out, and we reset in the box. It was just a fantastic serve by Kacie (Kumar) and you could see even before she hit it, Arin (Gilliland) was getting position on a player’s hip and we knew if the ball came to her, she was going to score. We talk a lot about having to imagine the ball is coming to you. You don’t ever score unless you imagine, and it was very clear Arin had taken a position on a fantastic serve and headed down into the corner just like you want. It was a fantastic goal.”
The Bulldogs wouldn’t be denied though as the SEC’s leading goal scorer Alexa Newfield, took a loose ball, dribbled it past the UK defense and beat Kayla Priceone-on-one for the game-winner in the 88th minute.
The wind played havoc on both teams from the start. Kentucky won the opening coin toss and opted to play into the wind in the first half. The Bulldogs took advantage taking a 1-0 lead while outshooting the Wildcats 8-3 and controlling the attack virtually the entire first 45 minutes.
“Well obviously there were two great teams out there that wanted to knock the ball around, and so it’s disappointing to have a windy day because it chops up the game,” Lipsitz said. “I thought both teams handled it as well as possible; obviously we made some adjustments to push players forward to lock them in in the second half because we knew we could and we knew it would be difficult to clear with one ball. We also knew that we were susceptible to counters with that and we found a goal that we expected to find and just made a couple big defensive errors and we got punished for it. You play against a great team with great players and you make mistakes, you are going to get punished for it. So we have to just get better.”
Kentucky answered in kind in the second half with their wind at its back. The Wildcats outshot the Bulldogs 10-6 and earned three corner kicks to Georgia’s one while controlling the majority of the play. However, all it took was one defensive lapse for the Bulldogs to get the win.
UK is now winless against Georgia in 13-straight, dating back to UK’s last win in the series in 1999.
Gilliland and Caitlin Landis paced the Wildcat offense with three shots each while keeper Kayla Pricefinished with three saves in the loss.
Kentucky returns to action Thursday night in Starkville, Miss. where they take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs before returning home for Senior Day on Sunday against Ole Miss.
