Oct. 6, 2013
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Kentucky women’s soccer team got two early goals in the second and fourth minutes, which propelled them to a 2-1 road win over Vanderbilt on Sunday afternoon at the Vanderbilt Soccer Complex in Nashville, Tenn.
“Obviously it’s a great feeling to pick up three points this afternoon and a weekend sweep in the SEC,” UK head coach Jon Lipsitz said. “We are going to take a lot out of this weekend moving forward. We challenged our team to come out focused and ready to play, and they obviously did that by scoring two early goals.”
With the win, Kentucky moves to 10-2-1 on the year and 4-1-0 in conference play. With 10 wins already in the books, Lipsitz has now guided UK to 10 or more wins in four-straight seasons for the first time since 1999-2003. In his 12 seasons as a head coach, Lipsitz has double-digit wins in 11 of those seasons.
The win in Kentucky’s fourth-straight over Vanderbilt and UK has now won 10 of its last 11 matches.
The game’s opening goal came just 85 seconds into the match, as Zoe Swift scored her seventh goal of the season to put Kentucky into the lead early. Swift got a through ball at the top of the 18 from Stuart Pope, who then created space to her left and slotted Swift the ball. Swift took the pass, and finished it two-touch into the near post, past the keeper for the lead.
Just two minutes later, Kentucky extended its lead when Swift found the running feet of Arin Gilliland to put UK up 2-0. Swift had the ball, extending the width of the attacking third for Kentucky, and then condensed space by feeding the ball through to a waiting Gilliland who rifled it into the back of the net.
The goal for Gilliland was her third of the season, and she picked up her 13th and 14th points on the season.
Kentucky (10-2-1, 3-1-0 SEC) became the first SEC road team to win a conference match in 2013 on a Sunday, as the game was the first to finish on Sunday afternoon.
Vanderbilt (3-7-3, 0-4-1 SEC) pushed numbers forward late in the game, and were able to put one past Kayla King in the 85th minute to avoid the shutout. King made only one save on the afternoon, as VU was only able to pick apart the back line of Kentucky for two shots on frame all day.
Kentucky fired 32 total shots on the day, with nine on target. Kentucky was able to record five corner kicks in the first half and one in the second half.
Caitlin Landis led Kentucky in shots with eight on the day. Gilliland had seven shots, with Swift tallying six on the afternoon. UK outshot VU 14-5 in the first half and 18-8 in the second half.
With the win, Kentucky stays at second place on the Southeastern Conference table, with 12 points through five games. Atop the SEC table is LSU, who is sitting on 13 points through the opening five games of the SEC season.
“As great as it is to pick up two wins, we are still coaches,” Lipsitz said. “We will learn from the mistakes we had this weekend, correct them, and get back to work in training this week. We were given two stern tests, and came away with six points, so it was a good weekend for us.”
For continuing coverage of UK women’s soccer, log on to UKathletics.com.
