By Kevin Erpenbeck

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After defeating Louisville on the road Friday, UK women’s soccer head coach John Lipsitz warned his team about being mentally prepared to face Morehead State on Sunday.

In 2012, the emotion of defeating then-ranked No. 12 Louisville left his team unprepared for a 3-1 loss to Samford two days later.

The Cats were not haunted by the past on Sunday, however, going on to defeat Morehead, 3-0.

UK displayed its focus early against the Eagles, as the Cats scored two goals in the first nine minutes of the game.

Sophomore forward Jade Klump was the first to score, taking a pass from senior forward Arin Gilliland and cutting through Morehead’s defense to net her third goal of the season.

Two minutes later, junior defender Olivia Jester scored on a long shot attempt that Eagles goalkeeper Elizabeth Floyd bobbled and lost in the net. It was Jester’s second career goal.

“I just really wanted to get forward,” Jester said. “We were having trouble finding feet up top, so I just hit it in hoping to find someone’s head. I caught the keeper not catching it, and it went right through. I got lucky, but I’ll take any goal I can get.”

The Cats added one more goal before the end of the first half when sophomore forward Michaela Dooley finished off of a ball played into the box. It was Dooley’s third consecutive match with a goal.

UK played the rest of the match on cruise control as every substitute player received playing time.

The team recorded its fourth consecutive shutout of the season and has now played 367 minutes without allowing a goal.

Freshman goalkeeper Taylor Braun helped the Cats secure the clean sheet with her three saves in the game. Braun said that while they did not play their best defensive game, she was still thrilled to secure the shutout.

“We’ll be working on the mistakes we made today for next week’s game,” Braun said. “But we did our job, got the win, and kept the shutout.”

Now riding a five-game winning streak, UK will face Pepperdine at home Sunday, still looking to keep their emotions in check.

“You want to keep yourself on an even keel, emotionally, throughout the season,” Lipsitz said. “We have to talk about what are the things we still have to do well when we’re not physically and emotionally our best. We’ll fix the mistakes we made against Morehead and get better in time for Pepperdine.”