Oct. 14, 2012
ATHENS, Ga. – With a career-high 10 saves from Kayla King, an early sixth-minute goal from Arin Gilliland, and great defense from the UK back line, the University of Kentucky women’s soccer team knocked off the Georgia Bulldogs 1-0 for the first time since 1999 to earn an SEC weekend road sweep for the first time under head coach Jon Lipsitz.
“It is huge to be able to go on the road, especially for the second weekend in a row and get six points,” UK head coach Jon Lipsitz. “That was hard. Georgia seems to be a little bit snake bit with all the injuries and balls just not finding the net. They were the better team today, but for us there are a lot of ways to win a game. One of them is to score early on the road and hang on. That’s what we did today.”
Kentucky took the early lead in the game just six minutes in, capitalizing from a midfield turnover from Georgia. The Bulldogs lost possession thanks to pressure in the center from Olivia Jester, which allowed junior Caitlin Landis to retrieve it and slip a through ball about 30 yards from goal to Gilliland. Gilliland took a burst of a first touch, exploding past her defender and striking for her fifth of the season to the far post.
The first half would end with UK managing just two shots in the opening 45. The Wildcats captured four corner kicks to the Bulldogs two, and keeper Kayla King recording all five saves in the first frame.
The goal would stand as the only goal of the game, and propel UK to the 1-0 win. The final tallies would show UGA outshot the Wildcats 21-8 and record one less foul than UK at 11-10. The Cats won the corners, taking six to the Bulldogs’ four in the game.
Kayla King tallied her second-straight shutout, marking her third-career blanking of an opponent. Sunday’s game marked the 14th time this season that UK has held its opponents to two goals or less. The back-to-back shutouts are the first since Aug. 31 and Sept. 2 when UK beat UNC Greensboro 2-0 and SEMO 1-0 in Lexington.
Sunday, King recorded a career-high 10 saves against the Bulldogs, while also tallying three saves vs. Tennessee Friday night, marking 13 saves on her first-ever 2-0-0 SEC weekend in net.
“The best compliment I can give any of my players is that they did their job. Kayla did her job today, and all of this weekend,” Lipsitz said.
The win was UK’s first in 13 tries over UGA as the Wildcats had gone since the 1999 season without a win over Georgia. Kentucky’s last win over Georgia in Athens, Ga., was a year earlier in 1998. In addition, it was the first SEC weekend sweep on the road for UK since the 2000 season when Kentucky knocked off Alabama and Auburn on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1, 2000.
UK will return home for the first time in the month of October, where the Wildcats will finish out the season with three-straight home games. Kentucky will face South Carolina on Friday night at 6:30 at the UK Soccer Complex in a game that will be shown live on Fox Sports South at 6:30 p.m. ET. Dave Baker and Katie Witham will have the call from Lexington.
For continuing coverage of UK women’s soccer, log on to UKathletics.com.
