By Kevin Erpenbeck

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On a day that celebrated the illustrious playing careers of the UK women’s soccer seniors, the Cats capped off the 2014 regular season with a 2-1 win over Alabama.

It was a familiar result for the senior class and for the team. The win over the Crimson Tide marked the 57^th win for the 2014 seniors, and was the sixth win in a row for the Cats this year.

Head coach Jon Lipsitz, with seniors Arin Gilliland, Stuart Pope, Emma Brown and Maddie Lockridge by his side, expressed how proud he was of this year’s squad. But he also reminded them how much work is still ahead.

“It feels great (to get the win), but I’m not sending them off. We’ve got a lot more to do” Lipsitz said. “One of the great things about our seniors is that they’re servant leaders. They give back and teach the team. Now that the game is over, it’s about them.”

The win didn’t come easy for the Cats, as Alabama pushed UK to its limits in what was a very physical, yet “unaesthetic” game.

“We weren’t very good. I think both teams gave away the ball way too much,” Lipsitz said. “But sometimes you’ve got to find a way to grind it out. These are the exact wins, earlier in the year, that were losses. We just didn’t grind out the difficult ones. I think that’s part of our big change.”

Alabama held UK to just three shots in the first half, but yielded a goal to sophomore forward Jade Klump after a defensive mistake in the backfield allowed Klump to hit the ball off the crossbar and roll into the net.

The Crimson Tide would score the equalizer two minutes later after receiving a set piece from a distance and shot the ball past freshman goalkeeper Taylor Braun.

After many more turnover-filled positions and missed offensive opportunities, the game appeared to be headed for overtime with the score still tied at less than five minutes remaining. That’s when sophomore midfielder Kaitlin Miller knocked in a header from a UK corner kick to win Senior Day for the Cats.

“Cara Ledman played a great ball in (from the corner), and back post is what we talked about all week in practice,” Miller said. “I just jumped first and headed it back where it came from.”

For Gilliland, the end result may be the same, but the emotion surrounding it is completely new.

“A win anytime is great, and on Senior Day, it just means so much more,” Gilliland said. “This wasn’t an easy game to win. This was a fight, and we had to work to get the goals that we got. They played a completely different style than we’re used to playing. But my team found a way to win, and those are the types of games I live for.”

The SEC Tournament awaits the Cats next week, and while the 2014 seniors have won many games in their time at UK, none have come from the conference postseason play.

It’s a fact that Lipsitz hopes to see changed this year.

“These guys have done about everything except for that,” Lipsitz said. “So I can guarantee you they’re going to be talking about that a lot. Whoever we play is going to be a great team. It’s been a grind of a conference season. It starts all over (in the tournament), and I like where we are heading into it.”