University of Louisville
USF
Women's Soccer Earns 2-1 Overtime Win Against USF
October 02, 2011 | Women's Soccer
Oct. 2, 2011
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Sophomore forward Christine Exeter connected on a header in the 96th minute to lift the Louisville women's soccer team to a 2-1 overtime victory against visiting USF on Sunday afternoon at Cardinal Park.
With the victory, the Cardinals improved to 5-5-3 overall and 3-1-2 in BIG EAST Conference games, while the Bulls dropped to 5-4-4 overall and 1-2-3 in the league. With three weeks left in the regular season, Louisville is second in the National Division of the BIG EAST with 11 points and trails only Georgetown with 12 points. Notre Dame is third with 10 points, while Seton Hall is fourth with nine points.
The game-winning goal was setup as freshman Devyn Ciotti (Liberty, Ohio/Lakota West HS) sent a corner kick in from the right side to Exeter (Pickering, Ont., Canada/Pickering HS), who headed it into the upper right corner from eight yards away for her team-leading fifth goal of the season and the 12th of her career. It was the second game-winning goal of 2011 for Exeter, while the assist for Ciotti was her second of the season.
"I was very pleased with our effort today, both offensively and defensively," said Cardinals' head coach Karen Ferguson-Dayes. "We created numerous chances, had some great shots on-goal and certainly had opportunities to win the game in regulation, but so did South Florida. They're a very good team and they challenged us to be better today. It's a great win for us. Now, we'll refocus and get ready for the big road trip to Villanova and Georgetown."
The fireworks in Sunday's game started early as USF opened the scoring in the fifth minute of action when Taylor Patterson took a cross on the left side of the field from Demi Stokes and found the upper right corner of the goal from 18 yards away for the 1-0 advantage. The goal for Patterson was her third of the season, while the assist for Stokes was her fourth.
However, that lead was short-lived as sophomore Angelika Uremovich (Oakville, Ont.,Canada/St. Ignatius of Loyola) recovered an unsuccessful clearance attempt by USF goalkeeper Nicole McClure on the right side of the field and scored into the upper left corner from 25 yards away to even the score at 1-1 in the seventh minute. The goal was the third of the season for Uremovich and the eighth of her career.
Following that goal, the defenses for each team kept things even through the end of regulation and for the first five minutes of overtime before Exeter's game-winner. Senior goalkeeper Chloe Kiefer (Whitefish Bay, Wis./Divine Saviour HS) finished with five saves in the win, while Summer Ikeda, who replaced an injured McClure in goal in the first half, had 12 saves in the loss.
Overall, Louisville finished with a 24-12 advantage in shots, including a 15-6 margin in shots on-goal, and the Cardinals finished with a 6-0 advantage in corner kicks. The Bulls were whistled for 15 fouls, while the Cards finished with 14.
Up next, Louisville will take to the road for BIG EAST Conference games at Villanova (Oct. 7, 4 p.m., ET) and Georgetown (Oct. 9, 1 p.m., ET) next week.
