The Kentucky Wildcats (5-0-0) walked away from Champaign this weekend with a clean start to their season, while the Illini (3-1-1) finished one goal short of a draw.
It was a hard-fought victory for the Wildcats in a game that proved to be extremely physical. Two Wildcats were booked with yellow cards and by the end of the 90 minutes, 30 fouls were recorded between both teams. In the end, it was a decisive counterattack from Kentucky in the first half combined with an unlucky own goal in the second, that secured the win for Kentucky.
The opening 45 minutes were electrifying, with both sides fiercely battling in the midfield, resulting in a scoring dry spell lasting nearly 30 minutes. It was only at the 28-minute mark that Illinois’ redshirt freshman goalkeeper Izzy Lee conceded her first goal to former Illini-turned-Wildcat graduate student forward Makayla Woods. Woods took her chance off an unfortunate giveaway by the Illini defense and managed to get a good shot in the box, which finally put a score on the board.
The closest the Illini came to answering in the first half was off one of four corner kicks conceded by the Wildcats. Junior defender Ella Karolak sent one into the box and freshman defender Mia Gildea managed to get a header off but sent it just wide of the post. The rest of the opening half remained heavily contested, with both sides successfully putting off further scoring. The half ended 1-0 in favor of the Wildcats, despite the Illini getting off more shots than their competitors (5-3).
The second half began with much of the same excitement and energy as the first. The 51st minute saw Lee punch away an impressive shot by Kentucky’s graduate student midfielder Sophia Mattice, sent powerfully from outside the box and heading towards the top right corner. Lee’s effort left the crowd roaring and resulted in one of her four saves in the game.
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Two minutes later, the Wildcats furthered their lead with an unfortunate own goal by the Illinois defense that managed to slip by Lee. In the 60th minute, sophomore forward Sarah Foley netted a goal in response for the Illini off a first touch from redshirt freshman midfielder Regan Moody, cutting down the Wildcats lead and putting her team on the board. Moody had her own look for an equalizer in the 74th minute but was unable to clinch it due to a save by graduate student goalie Marz Josephson.
Close calls also came from the Kentucky offense in the 79th minute, one batted away by Lee and the other off-target. The remaining 20 minutes of gameplay saw no more shots from either team, with both sides’ midfielders standing their ground.
“I thought our defense held strong,” said head coach Janet Rayfield. “We just didn’t take care of the ball as much as we need to, so we had to defend more than we wanted. I thought Angie Galo was dangerous on the flank, shut them down on that side.”
Senior defender Angie Galo played all 90 minutes of today’s match and personally closed out multiple chances created by the Wildcats down her side of the pitch. Rayfield also gave a special call out to freshman midfielder Lauren Seppi and the rest of her back four, who were able to step to the ball a considerable number of times to prevent additional goal-scoring opportunities.
“We limited the quality chances that Kentucky had,” Reyfield concluded. “We just didn’t create enough of our own.”
