Tennessee Lady Vols forward Hannah Wilkinson was charging toward the goal in the 31st minute when a Tulsa defender tripped her up. The trip resulted in a free kick, giving the Tennessee Lady Volunteers soccer team a golden opportunity to score before halftime.
Head coach Brian Pensky then asked Knoxville native Kiah Allen if she wanted to take the free kick. After some encouragement from her teammates, Allen agreed to take the kick a couple yards behind the penalty box.
Allen’s free kick in the 32” minute sailed over Tulsa’s line of defense and over the goalkeeper’s head into the back of the goal. It was the first goal of Allen’s career.
The goal also gave Tennessee a lead that they would never relinquish as they defeated the previously undefeated Tulsa Golden Hurricanes, 1-0, inside Regal Stadium on Sunday.
“It was a great feeling to be able to get a chance to come and play for your hometown and score in front of an amazing crowd like this,” said the redshirt sophomore Allen on her first career goal.
Tennessee could have made the halftime score much less balanced. Tennessee had four shots on goal compared to Tulsa’s one, most of which were barely deflected by Tulsa’s goalkeeper.
“I don’t think we had that many shots overall in the whole game, but we had, I thought, some quality chances,” said Pensky. “Talk about the first half, we had a couple of great crosses. Kiah Allen had a cross to the back post. And Amy got a ball across the box that Hannah kinda got on the end of.”
Amy Neal’s pass across the box could have been the play of the game. Neal made a great pass to Wilkinson in the 14th minute of the game and Wilkinson just managed to get her head on the ball. Wilkinson’s shot would have been goal if there had not been a Tulsa defender in front of the goal to deflect the shot.
Anna McClung also had an opportunity to put the Lady Vols in the lead midway through the first half before Allen’s goal on the free kick, but her shot landed right in the goalkeeper’s hands.
The Lady Vols’ back line gave the Golden Hurricanes very few opportunities to get good looks at the goal, but when a Tulsa player did have an decent look at the goal it was an offensive player who made a play to keep Tulsa scoreless.
Wilkinson blocked a shot in the 26th minute that could have easily been a Tulsa goal, and then cleared the ball out of the penalty box to end the Tulsa scoring threat.
“I always prefer attacking, getting on the attacking side of things. But still, I had to track that runner and I am pleased that I blocked it,” Wilkinson said.
While Tennessee failed to add to their lead in the second half, they made sure Tulsa never even got close to getting the equalizer. Goalkeeper Jaime Simmons had no saves in the second half and only one save in the entire game.
Tennessee nearly did score an insurance goal late in the second half though. Wilkinson had possession in the penalty box before she appeared to be tripped by a Tulsa defender.
The trip was a no-call, however, much to the chagrin of the Tennessee crowd.
The Tennessee crowd, especially the student portion of the crowd, gave the Lady Vols a strong home-field advantage against Tulsa. The students made the stands shake on corner kicks during the game and stayed to celebrate the victory with the team after the game.
“No words can describe what (student support) means to these guys,” said Pensky. “I hope the students are having a blast because it means so much to our players to have that kind of support and that kind of spirit and singing songs and chanting and all of it, it means everything. And then to stick around afterwards and give our kids an opportunity to say thank you to them. We just hope they continue to go out and support our players.”
Tennessee’s record improved to 3-2 after the game and also handed Tulsa their first loss of the season.
