In its final nonconference match before starting their Pac-12 schedule, the University of Utah soccer team (5-2-1) won on their home field on Friday, Sept. 15 against Kansas (5-3-1). The Utes took the lead in the first half of the match, and they managed to maintain it until the end for a 2-1 victory.
“Kansas was formidable tonight, and I thought that we just did enough to win,” said head coach Rich Manning. “I thought Carly Nelson had her best game of the year in the goal and she was solid. She made some really good saves, made some solid decisions, held the ball when it was wet and I think she was key to us kind of holding the fort a little bit.”
The first shot was taken 11 minutes into the game by the Jayhawks, who then followed with two corner kicks. Less than two minutes later, the Utes had their first corner kick of the night by Paola Van der Veen. As both teams scrambled to gain control of the ball, it was Hailey Skolmoski who ended up with it. She took a shot off a header, but the ball hit the post. Despite the result from that shot, Utah didn’t give up and Lulu Borges and Eden Jacobsen assisted Haylee Cacciacarne in Utah’s first goal of the match just moments later, giving the Utes a 1-0 lead.
“[My first goal] was exciting, and I thought it was good,” Cacciacarne said. “We worked on that and we talked about finishing our set plays so it was exciting scoring on two set plays tonight.”
With 15 minutes left to go in the the first half and the Jayhawks struggling to tie the score, Utah added another goal to extend its lead. This time around, an assist by Cacciacarne and Natalee Wells to Skolmoski helped Utah go up to 2-0 as they headed into the second half.
Two yellow cards were shown — one belonging to Kansas and the other to Utah — before the game concluded. After the second yellow card, and despite the many opportunities Utah had to take advantage of scoring, Kansas scored off a penalty kick. However, the Jayhawks struggled to tie the match and after 90 minutes, Utah won.
“I think overall we did really well as a team,” Cacciacarne said. “We knew we had to come out and finish our preseason strong going into Pac-12 next week.”
The Utes will begin their Pac-12 play on Saturday, Sept. 23 on the Ute Soccer Field with a matchup against USC.
“The last five games have been hard,” Manning said. “We have been on the road traveling and not having a lot of time to practice, so I think it is important that we take a weekend of rest, get back out on Monday and get ready for USC. I think more than any particular soccer thing, we just need to regroup a little bit, rest and recover.”
First kick is at 2 p.m. MT.
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