Sept. 28, 2014
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky women’s soccer team picked up its second-straight Southeastern Conference win on Sunday night, battling past the Auburn Tigers, 2-1, thanks to sophomore Zoe Swift’s second goal of the season in the 67th minute at the Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer Complex.
“I think they’re a great team,” UK head coach Jon Lipsitz said. “We’ve been watching them on film and trying to figure out how we’re going to beat this great team. Kudos to my assistant coaches for scouting reports, leading the way in what we needed to do, obviously, and the team executing. That’s a really, really good team and they’re going to win a lot of games and so for us to beat them says a lot about how well we played.”
The game-winning goal came just past the hour mark of the match, as the Wildcats got a corner kick on the left side of the pitch and it was swung in by junior Cara Ledman a little bit past the far post. Sophomore Alex Carter then headed the ball back into the danger zone of the six-yard box, where Swift put her head to the ball and thwarted it past an outstretched Alyse Scott to put UK in front 2-1 from five yards out.
The goal for Swift was her second of the season, with her other coming on Friday, Sept. 5, in a 2-0 win over Louisville.
Kentucky (7-3-0, 2-1-0 SEC) with the win has now won back-to-back SEC matches and collects a six-point weekend for the first time this season. UK outshot Auburn (6-4-1, 0-2-1 SEC) 16-7 overall and had nine shots in the second 45 to AU’s four.
For the second-straight match, sophomore Ayanna Parker got the start in the net for UK, as she moves to 2-0-0 in her career, with two SEC wins. Parker recorded a career-high two saves on the night, and fended off seven Tiger shots during the match.
The opening goal of the match was scored by sophomore Jade Klump, who tallied her fifth goal of the season in the 28th minute to put the Wildcats ahead early. There was a scramble in front of the net after a shot from Arin Gilliland was saved, and Klump was in the right place at the right time and buried the rebound for her team-high tying fifth of the season. Gilliland with the assist, now has a team-high eight on the season.
Gilliland after the match was presented with the 2014 Honda Inspiration Award from Honda manager of corporate community relations, Erik Wedin. After accepting the award in Los Angeles at the CWSA Awards live on CBS, Honda came out to Lexington to formally present Gilliland with the 2014 award, as Gilliland became the first-ever soccer player to win the nationally-renowned award in Honda Cup history.
Kentucky will return to the pitch on Thursday night in Columbia, Mo., as the Wildcats travel to face the Missouri Tigers. The match will kick-off at 7:00 p.m. ET, and will be televised live on the SEC Network with Glenn Davis and former US Women’s National Team member Cat Whitehill on the call.
For continuing coverage of UK women’s soccer, log on to UKathletics.com.
