Georgia Soccer drops a pair of weekend matches
In one disastrous weekend, the 22nd-ranked Georgia Soccer team went from challenging for one of the coveted top two seeds in the Southeastern Conference soccer tournament to a point away from playing in the opening round as one of the bottom four seeds.
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By losing to Alabama on Friday night and Kentucky on Sunday afternoon, Georgia saw both the Tide and the Wildcats
in the standings and drop the Bulldogs into sixth place. The weekend results throughout the SEC leave Georgia and five other teams within two points of each other and vying for the last three bye spots in the conference tournament with one match to play. With a win worth three points in the standings, Georgia must play the current first place team, Texas A&M.
Georgia lost to Alabama 2-0 at the Alabama Soccer Complex in Tuscaloosa. The Tide scored in the first half and added a second score after halftime to put the Bulldogs away.
“Alabama is a very good team,” said head coach Steve Holeman told Georgiadogs.com. “They had a great game plan and they executed it extremely well. I don’t think there were any secrets – we saw them on video and tonight we had a difficult time breaking them down. We did create a lot of good chances, but at the end of the day Alabama was the better team and deserved to win.”
Alabama struck first in the 23rd minute when Merel van Dongen played Laura Lee Smith, who finished from the right side with a screamer over the head of Georgia keeper Louise Hogrell to make it 1-0 at intermission.
Hogrell came up with two big saves for Georgia early in the second half, parrying one over the crossbar before diving to stop a ball that wasn’t cleared following the ensuing corner kick.
The Tide gained a 2-0 advantage when Theresa Diederich played Smith to the right wing, and Smith’s ball inside found the foot of Lacey Clarida for a one-timer past Hogrell to the bottom right in the 74th minute.
Seiler led Georgia with five shots on the night, while Hogrell finished with seven saves.
On Sunday, red-hot Kentucky visited the the UGA Soccer Stadium to face the Georgia soccer team on Senior Night. Georgia recognized seniors Laura Eddy and Carli Shultis. The Wildcats then took a 2-0 contest from the Dawgs.
Georgia travels to Texas A&M this week for a rare Thursday meeting in College Station.
“Obviously a very difficult and disappointing loss,” said head coach Steve Holeman to Georgiadogs.com. “I feel bad for Carli and Eddy. I thought we played extremely well tonight. I thought we had a great Sunday night matchup with Kentucky, and I feel like it’s a game that could have gone either way. They scored with their chances and we didn’t, and that’s the bottom line.”
Kentucky went up 1-0 just under 12 minutes into the game as Zoe Swift forced a turnover by the Georgia back line and finished her opportunity past goalkeeper Hogrell to put the Wildcats on top early on. Georgia had its share of looks at the goal as the squad aimed to tie, including with 27 to play in the first when Marion Crowder had an open chance go high.
UK ended with 15 shots to Georgia’s 14 as the Bulldogs had their opportunities but were unable to finish. Garcia led Georgia with four shots on the night, while Hogrell had four saves in goal.
Georgia will take on the Aggies on Thurs., Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. ET in the regular season finale, before preparing for the 2014 SEC Championships in Orange Beach, Ala., next week.