It was a joyous afternoon in Lexington for Illinois as it defeated Kentucky (5-1-0) 2-1 and handed its opponents the first loss of the season on Sunday. The Illini not only advanced to 5-0, but also achieved the program’s first perfect start through five games since 2004.
Sophomore forward Cayla Jackson and senior defender Ellen Persson tallied their first goals of the season, which wouldn’t have been possible without assists from redshirt sophomore midfielder Ashley Stellon.
“I think going back to this team’s roots helped contribute to today’s win,” Stellon said. “We had to lean on our roots of love, trust and resilience.”
Staying resilient
Although the Illini came out on top in the end, they didn’t start the contest in an ideal way. Two minutes into the match, Kentucky deflected the ball off an Illinois defender and scored a goal. This was the first goal the Illini have given to their opponent all season.
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A start like this can derail a team’s confidence that they had built up before the game. This didn’t happen to Illinois, though. Shortly after the Wildcats’ goal, the Illini responded. Stellon created a turnover in the 17th minute that led to Jackson tying up the match at 1-1.
“We experienced getting scored on for the first time this season, and we were able to bounce back quickly and not change how we want to play, just because we were in a position we haven’t experienced,” Stellon said.
To face its tough conference opponents in the coming weeks, Illinois will need resilience. The Illini’s performance against the Wildcats proved that this squad has plenty of resilience. After Persson scored the team’s second goal near the end of the first half, the second half was scoreless for both teams. Illinois kept its head in the game by going up 2-1 and holding the lead until the final buzzer.
Holding down the fort
A big reason why the Illini held their opponents scoreless until Sunday’s match this season is because of goalkeeper Izzy Lee. The redshirt junior had six saves against the Wildcats, just one save below her season high.
Kentucky had the momentum to start the game after their quick goal, but Lee didn’t let up. She kept the Wildcats scoreless for the rest of the contest. Even when Illinois wasn’t scoring either in the second half, Lee stayed focused on her job in front of the net.
“I also think Izzy Lee did an incredible job handling the second half, when they had momentum,” Stellon said. “Kentucky had a few big chances that Izzy (Lee) made huge saves on, helping us keep the lead.”
Stellon noted that Illinois’ whole back line did an excellent job holding back Kentucky’s athletic forwards in Sunday’s match. With head coach Katie Hultin’s expertise in coaching goalkeepers and defensive players, the Illini defense will only continue to improve each game this season.
More to come
Illinois will need to stay ready and confident for its next match this Thursday against Missouri. The Tigers are 2-2-1 on the season, losing two of their last three games to top-25 ranked opponents. However, Missouri got its second win of the season against Missouri State on Sunday.
Against Kentucky, Stellon said Illinois could have made use of its scout more than it did. This is something the Illini could improve upon and use to set themselves apart from the Tigers in their upcoming matchup.
“We had a good understanding of how they were going to play, and I think if we utilized that information better earlier on in the game, we could have had even more success today,” Stellon said.
