Strong Performance Breeds Confidence for Wildcats vs. No. 3 USC

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The defense was resolute, and the performance was strong out of the Kentucky women’s soccer team on Thursday night at the Bell Soccer Complex, as the Wildcats held the No. 3 team in the country and the top-ranked team in the RPI to just one goal in a 1-0 defeat.
 
“Given the lessons learned at Tennessee on Sunday night, the performance of the Wildcats tonight was something that I couldn’t be more proud of,” head coach Ian Carry said. “This was a great night for the foundation of the program moving forward. The buy-in of the team in regards to the amount of information they retained in a minimal amount of time was something to be applauded – and I’m proud of them for that.”
 
Kentucky held the Gamecocks off the board for 80 minutes with very few clear-cut chances, but then MAC Herrmann Award finalist Savannah McCaskill scored her fourth goal of the season, sending a chipped left-footed shot above the outstretch arms of Evangeline Soucie for the only tally of the match.
 
Soucie was great all night in net for UK, stopping two different breakaway chances for the Wildcats, and recording seven saves in the match with four coming in the first half.
 
The Wildcats best chance came early in the second half of a then-scoreless game when Yuuka Kurosaki returned to the pitch for the first time in three weeks and made some magic happen before the chance went array.
 
With Thursday’s result, the Gamecocks move to 8-1-1, 2-0-0 SEC while the Wildcats fall to 5-6-0 and 0-2-0 in league action.
 
Kentucky will now travel to Auburn on Sunday afternoon for a 3 p.m. ET fixture on The Plains. The match will be shown live on the SEC Network, ESPN3 and the ESPN app.
 
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s soccer team, follow @UKWomensSoccer on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.