Kentucky women’s soccer (10-4-2, 4-2-2 SEC) handed No. 8 South Carolina (10-2-4, 4-1-3 SEC) its first conference loss of the season 3-2.
The win marked the first time the Wildcats have defeated the Gamecocks since 2014.
Along with breaking the long streak, the win is also the first time in program history that Kentucky has defeated three ranked opponents in one regular season.
“In the SEC you’re going to have those opportunities,” Kentucky Head Coach Troy Fabiano said. “We want to take another step forward, and we want to be one of those top 25 teams.”
Breaking an 11-year streak speaks to the program that Fabiano is building since becoming head coach in 2022.
“We’re excited and we’re building,” Fabiano said. “We’re a young group, a lot of people don’t realize we lost eight starters last year to graduation.”
Coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance last year, Fabiano’s Wildcats know what it takes to get back there, and his message before the game was about exactly that.
“We’ve dropped some games, we’ve dropped some points,” Fabiano said. “You have three games left, and the positive is you built a resume to sort of control your own destiny, don’t let them take it away from us.”
Fabiano was not the only person to realize how big the matchup against the top 10 Gamecocks was.
“We knew how we want our season to go, and this one was very important for us,” junior midfielder Tanner Strickland said. “We haven’t beaten them yet. So, we knew what we had to do to come out and get a win.”
The match was extremely physical, seeing 28 total foul calls and three cards handed out within the full 90 minutes of gameplay.
“I know at the end of the game we’re going to get a win,” Strickland said. “I’ll take all the hits, all the punches, whatever, and get a win.”
Physical matches like this one can lead to a loss of composure, and Fabiano stressed the importance of controlling emotions in a heated match.
“You got to control the highs, control the lows. Can you find that consistency,” he said. “Unfortunately, maybe at times, we’ve lost a little bit of composure. Today, again, a little bit of a sweat towards the end.”
The Cats clinched the first four-win conference slate for the program since the aforementioned 2014 season with its win against South Carolina, with still two games remaining on the schedule.
Kentucky looks to continue its historic season on Sunday, Oct. 19, when they travel to Baton Rouge to take on LSU at 2 p.m., streaming live on SECN+.
