Women’s soccer wins second consecutive overtime match

University+of+Kentucky+womens+soccer+played+for+their+3rd+straight+win+of+the+season+against+Morehead+State+on+August+23rd%2C+2018.+Photo+by+Michael+Clubb+%7C+Staff

University of Kentucky women’s soccer played for their 3rd straight win of the season against Morehead State on August 23rd, 2018. Photo by Michael Clubb | Staff

Abbie Long

The UK women’s soccer team returned to the Bell Soccer Complex on Thursday night for a mid-week, in-state matchup against the Golden Eagles of Morehead State. The Cats defeated the Golden Eagles 2-1 in overtime.

The Cats were coming out of the season’s opening weekend undefeated, after a victory over Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 2-1 on Friday night, and defeating Little Rock 3-2 in overtime on Sunday afternoon.

“3-0 and feels good,” sophomore forward Marissa Bosco said. “That was our plan from the beginning to come out 3-0 going against Wisconsin, it’s the best in programs’ history in a while so we’re feeling pretty proud of that.”

Morehead State came out of the gate hot and nearly scored in the 3rd minute with a shot from freshman forward Colleen Swift. But UK’s freshman goalie Hannah Leonard came up with an impressive save to keep the score at 0-0.

From then on the tempo of the first-half was mainly controlled by the Cats defensively, holding the Golden Eagles to just one shot on goal and one corner kick for the first 45 minutes of the match. UK’s offense went into halftime with a total of five shots on goal and six corner kicks.

Bosco struck the net first for her first goal of the season off an assist from sophomore midfielder Yuuka Kurosaki.

Morehead State finally found a moment to break through UK’s dominant defense in the 83rd minute with a header goal from sophomore midfielder Katie Quinn to tie the game at 1-1, which would eventually send the game in overtime.

Bosco said that head coach Ian Carey’s message to the team in the intermission before the overtime period was, “You all got yourselves in this position, it’s your job to get out of it.”

The overtime period didn’t last long as Kurosaki scored the game winning goal in the 92nd minute off an assist from freshman midfielder Abby Steiner. This was Kurosaki’s third goal of the season thus far.

“This was the first time our team has dug out a win that quickly in overtime, so that felt pretty good,” Bosco said.

Next up for UK women’s soccer is a Sunday afternoon matchup against the Wisconsin Badgers. The match is set to start at noon at the Bell Soccer Complex, and will be nationally televised on the SEC Network.