Soccer: UT 3, Kentucky 1

[armchair]

The Vols opened their SEC season with a good win over Kentucky last night, 3-1, before what looked to be a pretty nice-size crowd. With the victory the orange-and-white remain undefeated, 9-0, and are starting to climb in the polls.

I was a bit nervous when I saw UT wearing their checkerboard jerseys. I'm not a big fan of them, and the team has not exactly excelled wearing them the last three years, and I like the smokey gray tops that we unveiled and played well in against Va. Tech...and when I started watching the game five minutes after kickoff my apprehensions were heightened. Kentucky is not going to be very good this year--but they were all over us for a six-minute period and came within a hair of scoring the first goal. The wildcats had 5 players in the midfield, against our three, and we struggled to get the ball out of our defensive third. But bringing too many players forward can backfire on you--and that's exactly what happened as the Vols, after surviving the early Kentucky flurry, counterattacked and scored a beautiful goal when forward Erin Gilroy, taking a pass from Paige Franks, beat her defender and rifled a low, hard centering pass into the box that Mary Alice Vignola slotted home neatly to give UT the lead. A really top-notch goal.

That first goal shifted momentum and we basically cruised from there--holding Kentucky in check throughout and scoring two more goals--both by transfer sensation Bunny Shaw, who is a very talented player. Shaw headed in our second goal, in the first half, on a beautiful left-footed cross from forward Meghan Flynn, who is playing very well this year, and then late in the game Shaw scored another nifty goal after getting an outstanding through pass from Danielle Marcano. Shaw now has 8 goals on the year. She is a big kid--a member of the Jamaican national team--who is good with the ball, athletic, and knows the game; she is a very good passer as well as scorer. She's a classic target forward--and they are nice to have in this game--as so many contests are decided by which team can "take their chances," as they say--which means scoring when you get a decent or good opportunity to score, because in a lot of games you will not get too many good chances. Shaw can score--and we've got others who can, too.

With three tough games coming up next, Coach Pensky rested his starters and played a lot of subs. That made the second half kind of ragged but a lot of kids got some good experience. Katie Cousins played only 30 minutes in this game. I'm not sure if she got a nick or not--I think she's OK--and I'm pretty sure she'll be playing major minutes against auburn on Thursday, then against South Carolina on Sunday, and next week against Alabama, away. These next three games will be the acid test for us. I dare say we will put more talent on the field than each of those teams--we've got kids playing 45 minutes who could and would be playing 70 minutes on a lot of other teams--but each of those opponents plays well-organized soccer and will require us to play strong, well-organized soccer as well.

The auburn game, at home, is a must-win game. We've got a very tough schedule: after this game, every SEC team we play is solid. Auburn is not as good as last year but they've been steeled by playing a very hard non-conference schedule (they played and got whipped by powerhouses UNC and duke) and upset Texas A&M at home on Thursday. South Carolina is doing what they do--playing good defense and relying on S. McCaskill, their burly and talented forward, to win/steal games for them. Bama beat ACC powerhouse Fla. State at home--in what has to be one of the shockers of the collegiate season--and played well against South Carolina in Columbia before losing the game late, 1-0. And the bama game is on the road. I like this team--but we're moving into territory where a handful of plays tend to decide games, and the Vols need to be the team making them.

 

[Sugaray13]

The Vols opened their SEC season with a good win over Kentucky last night, 3-1, before what looked to be a pretty nice-size crowd. With the victory the orange-and-white remain undefeated, 9-0, and are starting to climb in the polls.

I was a bit nervous when I saw UT wearing their checkerboard jerseys. I'm not a big fan of them, and the team has not exactly excelled wearing them the last three years, and I like the smokey gray tops that we unveiled and played well in against Va. Tech...and when I started watching the game five minutes after kickoff my apprehensions were heightened. Kentucky is not going to be very good this year--but they were all over us for a six-minute period and came within a hair of scoring the first goal. The wildcats had 5 players in the midfield, against our three, and we struggled to get the ball out of our defensive third. But bringing too many players forward can backfire on you--and that's exactly what happened as the Vols, after surviving the early Kentucky flurry, counterattacked and scored a beautiful goal when forward Erin Gilroy, taking a pass from Paige Franks, beat her defender and rifled a low, hard centering pass into the box that Mary Alice Vignola slotted home neatly to give UT the lead. A really top-notch goal.

That first goal shifted momentum and we basically cruised from there--holding Kentucky in check throughout and scoring two more goals--both by transfer sensation Bunny Shaw, who is a very talented player. Shaw headed in our second goal, in the first half, on a beautiful left-footed cross from forward Meghan Flynn, who is playing very well this year, and then late in the game Shaw scored another nifty goal after getting an outstanding through pass from Danielle Marcano. Shaw now has 8 goals on the year. She is a big kid--a member of the Jamaican national team--who is good with the ball, athletic, and knows the game; she is a very good passer as well as scorer. She's a classic target forward--and they are nice to have in this game--as so many contests are decided by which team can "take their chances," as they say--which means scoring when you get a decent or good opportunity to score, because in a lot of games you will not get too many good chances. Shaw can score--and we've got others who can, too.

With three tough games coming up next, Coach Pensky rested his starters and played a lot of subs. That made the second half kind of ragged but a lot of kids got some good experience. Katie Cousins played only 30 minutes in this game. I'm not sure if she got a nick or not--I think she's OK--and I'm pretty sure she'll be playing major minutes against auburn on Thursday, then against South Carolina on Sunday, and next week against Alabama, away. These next three games will be the acid test for us. I dare say we will put more talent on the field than each of those teams--we've got kids playing 45 minutes who could and would be playing 70 minutes on a lot of other teams--but each of those opponents plays well-organized soccer and will require us to play strong, well-organized soccer as well.

The auburn game, at home, is a must-win game. We've got a very tough schedule: after this game, every SEC team we play is solid. Auburn is not as good as last year but they've been steeled by playing a very hard non-conference schedule (they played and got whipped by powerhouses UNC and duke) and upset Texas A&M at home on Thursday. South Carolina is doing what they do--playing good defense and relying on S. McCaskill, their burly and talented forward, to win/steal games for them. Bama beat ACC powerhouse Fla. State at home--in what has to be one of the shockers of the collegiate season--and played well against South Carolina in Columbia before losing the game late, 1-0. And the bama game is on the road. I like this team--but we're moving into territory where a handful of plays tend to decide games, and the Vols need to be the team making them.

Score was actually 3-0. Shaw is the real deal. Good to see them having some success.

 

[armchair]

The Vols opened their SEC season with a good win over Kentucky last night, 3-1, before what looked to be a pretty nice-size crowd. With the victory the orange-and-white remain undefeated, 9-0, and are starting to climb in the polls.

I was a bit nervous when I saw UT wearing their checkerboard jerseys. I'm not a big fan of them, and the team has not exactly excelled wearing them the last three years, and I like the smokey gray tops that we unveiled and played well in against Va. Tech...and when I started watching the game five minutes after kickoff my apprehensions were heightened. Kentucky is not going to be very good this year--but they were all over us for a six-minute period and came within a hair of scoring the first goal. The wildcats had 5 players in the midfield, against our three, and we struggled to get the ball out of our defensive third. But bringing too many players forward can backfire on you--and that's exactly what happened as the Vols, after surviving the early Kentucky flurry, counterattacked and scored a beautiful goal when forward Erin Gilroy, taking a pass from Paige Franks, beat her defender and rifled a low, hard centering pass into the box that Mary Alice Vignola slotted home neatly to give UT the lead. A really top-notch goal.

That first goal shifted momentum and we basically cruised from there--holding Kentucky in check throughout and scoring two more goals--both by transfer sensation Bunny Shaw, who is a very talented player. Shaw headed in our second goal, in the first half, on a beautiful left-footed cross from forward Meghan Flynn, who is playing very well this year, and then late in the game Shaw scored another nifty goal after getting an outstanding through pass from Danielle Marcano. Shaw now has 8 goals on the year. She is a big kid--a member of the Jamaican national team--who is good with the ball, athletic, and knows the game; she is a very good passer as well as scorer. She's a classic target forward--and they are nice to have in this game--as so many contests are decided by which team can "take their chances," as they say--which means scoring when you get a decent or good opportunity to score, because in a lot of games you will not get too many good chances. Shaw can score--and we've got others who can, too.

With three tough games coming up next, Coach Pensky rested his starters and played a lot of subs. That made the second half kind of ragged but a lot of kids got some good experience. Katie Cousins played only 30 minutes in this game. I'm not sure if she got a nick or not--I think she's OK--and I'm pretty sure she'll be playing major minutes against auburn on Thursday, then against South Carolina on Sunday, and next week against Alabama, away. These next three games will be the acid test for us. I dare say we will put more talent on the field than each of those teams--we've got kids playing 45 minutes who could and would be playing 70 minutes on a lot of other teams--but each of those opponents plays well-organized soccer and will require us to play strong, well-organized soccer as well.

The auburn game, at home, is a must-win game. We've got a very tough schedule: after this game, every SEC team we play is solid. Auburn is not as good as last year but they've been steeled by playing a very hard non-conference schedule (they played and got whipped by powerhouses UNC and duke) and upset Texas A&M at home on Thursday. South Carolina is doing what they do--playing good defense and relying on S. McCaskill, their burly and talented forward, to win/steal games for them. Bama beat ACC powerhouse Fla. State at home--in what has to be one of the shockers of the collegiate season--and played well against South Carolina in Columbia before losing the game late, 1-0. And the bama game is on the road. I like this team--but we're moving into territory where a handful of plays tend to decide games, and the Vols need to be the team making them.

Score was actually 3-0. Shaw is the real deal. Good to see them having some success.

Good catch. I must have had the Va. Tech score stuck in my mind. Silly.

 

[1CHATTVOL]

Lady Vols no. 11 in RPI today. Not as bad as feared after the nonconference.

 

[Blazer2100]

Lady Vols no. 11 in RPI today. Not as bad as feared after the nonconference.

They also jumped to #16 in the Top Drawer poll. They are the third highest ranked SEC squad behind USC and UF. I was confused by the RPI being so high, I thought we played a weak non-conference schedule? I'm guessing it's because of all the road games.

 

[Sugaray13]

Good catch. I must have had the Va. Tech score stuck in my mind. Silly.

I live in Kentucky so every point counts!!!!! LOL

 

[armchair]

They also jumped to #16 in the Top Drawer poll. They are the third highest ranked SEC squad behind USC and UF. I was confused by the RPI being so high, I thought we played a weak non-conference schedule? I'm guessing it's because of all the road games.

because we DID play a weak non-conference schedule. The fact that we've won all our games is huge, I think. Had we lost or been tied by even one of our non-conference opponents, I think our RPI would be much lower. That killed us last year--that and having not a single quality win. This year our best win so far is Va. Tech--and the hokies are not terribly good; they are not bad but I can't see them finishing higher than 7th in the tough ACC.

The next three games will be the acid test for us--especially South Carolina and bama on the road. I desperately want to beat South Carolinia--I do not like that program or coach or their star player, McCaskill, who is outstanding but also a bit of a diver. We have a tough conference schedule; every game from here on promises to be tough. I'd take our talent against just about anybody in the conference, but it's all about being stout defensively and scoring two goals. If you can score two goals, you can win a lot of games. Most SEC teams are well-organized defensively, and scoring can be tough. Vandy dominated LSU but had to get a sort of greasy goal in the 85th minute to win that game 1-0. I watched UVA completely dominate NC State the other night and yet the game ended in a 0-0 tie. But I do like this Vol team.

 

[Blazer2100]

What's going to happen when teams start doubling and tripling up on Bunny in the box like they used to do Hannah W? I'd like to think it's going to bust it wide open for everyone else but that wasn't always the case in past years. It worries me how many open shots I've seen Marcano miss this year already...

 

[armchair]

I haven't seen Marcano miss open shots. I have seen Bialczak miss open shots--at least one and maybe two against Kentucky because I think she tightened up when the chance came. They are both good soccer players.

Bialczak is one of the more athletic players in the country. She played forward as a RS freshman but was not influential because we were a bad possession team. Last year she played midfield after Christy got hurt and she made us much better--had some good chemistry with Wilkinson. This year, with Christy back, Pensky put Bialczak back at forward and started Christy in the midfield. We were OK in non-conference games but did not have much attacking bite from our midfield. Pensky changed the lineup against Va. Tech--took Christy out and put Bialczak in midfield with Cousins and O'Keefe, and brought Vignola up to forward--she is naturally a midfielder (as Marcano should be in a perfect world) but was playing left outside back to start the year. Smart moves. We are a MUCH better team with Bialczak in midfield as she can cover a lot of ground, has a good work rate, can make penetrating runs with the ball. Christy, who has had two knee surgeries, just doesn't have the athleticism to be a good midfielder anymore--not against good opponents.

Our forward and outside back situations are not ideal in the sense of having the perfect players in those spots, from an athletic standpoint, but we do have pretty good soccer players in just about every position. Vignola and Flynn operate at left forward and have been effective--they both have a nose for the goal and can score, and Flynn, being left-footed, can and does put good crosses into the box--that is how we scored out second goal against Kentucky. Neither quite has the pace you ideally want in a forward--they've got enough pace but are not "fast"--but they can play. On the right, Pensky played Gilroy, Marcano and Kupritz. Gilroy, like Vignola and Flynn, is not super-fast but she has some size and she is /skilled/--her play to create our first goal against Kentucky was class. Good ball skills. Marcano is also quite a good player--not super-fast but pretty quick and has both size and ball skills. Those two have reduced Kupritz's minutes. You can't really spread minutes among three players at one position, so I'm not sure how this is going to shake out.

Last year Marcano played right outside back to shore up our defense and she was very good in that role. She /should/ be an attacking midfielder--that is her overall skill set--but Pensky likes our current three-man midfield, and I can understand why. Cousins is a given--an outstanding defensive midfielder and has been getting forward more--class. I've talked about Bialczak. O'Keefe is interesting--high work rate, quick; functions mostly as a midfielder sweeper and so is good for us defensively. Her downside is that she is not very big and so gets pushed off the ball a bit, and she doesn't offer a lot in attack. We don't really have a true attacking midfielder. I'd like to see a midfield of Cousins, Bialczak and Marcano. I'm not sure Marcano could get around defensively quite as well as O'Keefe--but she'd be a lot more dangerous when we are in an attacking mode--strong with the ball. Marcano is only playing about 45 minutes a game--half--and to me should be playing 70 because she is a good soccer player--but where?

Freshman Paige Franks is another interesting player. She is playing right outside back this year. She is another player who is most naturally a midfielder--a playmaking midfielder. She is quick and a good passer. She has been pretty decent at right back but she isn't quite as physical or as fast as one would like in an outside back, because they have to defend against the opponent's speedy forwards. It is not the best position for her--and this is an issue for us: We have a lot of really good midfielders and not enough space for them all. If I were Pensky, I'd consider moving Marcano back to full-time right back and have Franks come in and play for Bialczak or O'Keefe when they need a break. That would further bolster our back four, defensively. We'd lose a bit of punch at right forward--but we'd still have Gilroy and Kupritz there. At left back Josie Jennings has been fairy solid--she has some size--but like Franks I don't know if she is quite good enough: Outside backs have to deal with some fast, talented opposition forwards and with teams that like to press high--and they have to be good. If they are not, you will suffer. This team has quality depth, and that is a good thing and has been paying off for us.

RE Shaw being double teamed, yea, she will have to get rid of the ball--get it to other players and not have it taken from her, and then we can try to get it back to her. She has a good soccer IQ and is happy to pass. She is also big. Quick, ball movement is the key.