No. 10 Vandy Clinches SEC Title With 4-1 Win Over Kentucky

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – No. 10-ranked Vanderbilt clinched its first Southeastern Conference regular season championship since 1994 on Sunday afternoon with a 4-1 win over Kentucky on Sunday afternoon in Music City.
 
With Sunday’s win, Vanderbilt extends its unbeaten streak to 16 matches, and improves to 8-0-1 in SEC play this season. The Wildcats drop to 4-14-0 on the season and are now 0-9-0 in conference play. VU will be the No. 1 seed at the 2018 SEC Tournament in Orange Beach in two weeks’ time.
 
The 2018 season will complete on Thursday night at the Bell Soccer Complex in Lexington for UK against the Georgia Bulldogs. Kick-off is set for 7:30 p.m. ET and the match will be shown live on the SEC Network+ and the ESPN app with Dave Baker (pxp) and Stuart Pope (color) on the call.
 
Thursday will also be Senior Night at The Bell, with Kentucky honoring its two seniors, Payton Atkins and Tanya Samarzich, prior to the match beginning around 7:15 p.m. ET.
 
Vanderbilt scored in the eighth minute to open the scoring on Sunday afternoon through the boots of Grace Jackson, her fourth goal of the season. Less than 15 minutes later, Vandy doubled its lead before halftime with Kaylann Boyd’s eighth goal of the season.
 
Kentucky made it a 2-1 deficit in the 51st minute after a nice jolt to start the second half. Gretchen Mills scored her second goal of the season from distance, as she rifled a shot past Vandy’s keeper to cut the lead to just 2-1.
 
The Commodores then scored on a Kentucky own goal to increase the lead to 3-1 just three minutes after the Wildcats had pulled within one.
 
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.