Oct. 25, 2012
LEXINGTON, Ky. – After a scoreless opening half, the University of Kentucky women’s soccer team (13-5-1, 8-4-1 SEC) scored three goals in the second stanza to run past the Vanderbilt Commodores 3-0 on Senior Night at the UK Soccer Complex. The Wildcats closed out the regular season on a five-match winning streak and will play the Missouri Tigers in the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament on Wednesday night.
“Obviously, it’s nice to win on senior night,” UK head coach Jon Lipsitz said. “Sometimes emotions get the best of you and we had to just keep playing. We talked at halftime about being more aggressive and getting to goal. I thought we were sort of content to just play in the first half. Most of that was because of the challenges that Vandy was presenting. We knew it was going to be a very difficult game, and if you look at the stats, it was probably the most even game we have had in a while.”
Sophomore Caitlin Landis scored two goals in the game, the second and third goals of the season for the New Columbia, Pa., native. Both of Landis’ goals were rebound put-backs coming just 2:28 apart, and giving Kentucky the lead early in the second half. On the first goal, Natalie Horner took a long-range shot from far out, with the keeper needing to come to the top of the box to secure the save. The rebound went out of the keeper’s reach and was punched home by Landis to secure the opening goal of the game.
For her second goal of the game, sophomore Arin Gilliland took a long shot, and the keeper made a diving effort, but the rebound found the boot of Landis who throttled it into the near-side netting to record the goal. The goal was Landis’ third of the season, tallying four points on the night to bring her season total to 12 on the year.
Freshman Kennedy Collier scored her first-career goal, and point with the exclamation mark on the night, as a long-range shot found the back of the net, sailing past keeper Shannon Morris for the 3-0 lead. Collier played 43 minutes on the pitch and had three shots on the night. The three goals on the night was the highest-offensive output for UK since Sept. 16 when UK defeated Mississippi State 3-0 in the opening weekend of SEC play.
With the win coupled with a Mizzou loss, UK clinched the four seed in the Southeastern Conference Tournament next week in Orange Beach, Ala. The Wildcats will take on the Missouri Tigers in the quarterfinals, regardless of seeding. The Tigers and Wildcats met back on Oct. 5 in Columbia, Mo., and the Tigers took the 2-1 overtime win. The game will be at 8:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday night.
With the shutout, goalkeeper Kayla King has now recorded shutouts in four of the last five games, only allowing one goal in over 420 minutes of play. King, with the win, improves to 12-2-0 in 2012.
Kentucky finishes the regular season with an overall mark of 13-5-1 and 8-4-1 in SEC play. It is the first time since the 1999 season that UK has recorded eight conference wins. The back-to-back 13-win seasons are the first time since 1990-2000 that Kentucky has won 13 or more games in seasons.
The 3-0 result was Kentucky’s ninth win in 11 tries at home, closing out the season with a 9-1-1 record including wins over No. 13 Florida and a draw with No. 6 Texas A&M.
For continuing coverage of UK women’s soccer, log on to UKathletics.com.
