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KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State soccer team battled for 90 minutes, but Tennessee proved why it was the 21st ranked team in the nation as the Lady Vols defeated the Owls 2-0 on Friday night at KSU Stadium.
“Overall I’m very pleased, obviously we made a couple of mistakes, had a couple of defensive errors in the first half, but we soaked up a lot of pressure as we knew we would,” said Head Coach
Rob King. “I thought the second half was a much better team performance. Obviously, when you take the first half out of the equation we went 0-0 with the No. 21 team in the country.”
Tennessee (5-0-0), ranked for the first time this season, controlled much of the play in the first 45 minutes of action and grabbed an early lead on a goal from Iyana Moore in the 23rd minute of the match. After running onto a Kylie Bono through ball between the KSU defenders, Moore dribbled around senior goalkeeper
Melissa Hutto (Pensacola, Fla./South Alabama) and placed the ball in the lower right corner of the goal.
The Lady Vols added a second goal in the 37th minute as Susan Ferguson finished a bouncing ball in the middle of heavy traffic in the Owl six-yard box.
After adjustments at half time, Kennesaw State (1-3-0) and UT played a more even match second half, but the Owls could never break through on the score board.
“In the second half we had a couple of opportunities as well, so really pleased with our performance,” King added. “They battled hard and we did not sub at all in the second half. I said to the girls afterwards, we played 11 players against their team in the second half. We will probably be the fittest team in the country in about a month’s time. I’m very pleased overall. We will tighten up our defensive mistakes and get ready for Arkansas.”
Tennessee outshot KSU 19 to four, but with only seven on frame. Redshirt-sophomore
Katrina Frost (Fayetteville, Ga./South Carolina) led the Owls with two shots, including the lone Black and Gold shot on goal. Bono notched four shots, including one on goal, for the Lady Vols.
UT earned eight corner kicks and held KSU without a corner in the match. Hutto, despite dropping her first match of the season, nabbed four saves in 90 minutes of play, including two huge saves in the final minutes of the match. Julie Eckel improved to 5-0-0 on the season between the posts for UT and did not tally a save in the match.
Kennesaw State next heads on the road for the first time in 2012, traveling to Fayetteville, Ark., to face off against its third Southeastern Conference opponent of the season, Arkansas. Kickoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET at Razorback Field.
Keep up with Owls soccer this year by following KSU on Twitter at
@KSUOwlNation and
@ksuOWLSsoccer, or by liking Kennesaw State Owls on
Facebook.
