“Nothing’s better than ‘first-evers’,” Brian Pensky, UT womens soccer coach, remembered “the old baseball coach at Maryland” saying.
The Tennessee Lady Vols 1-0 double-overtime nail-biter over the William & Mary Tribe (0-2) at Regal Stadium Friday night adds substance to that quote.
Caroline Brown’s penalty kick with 3:26 left in extra time gave Tennessee soccer something it has never had: a 3-0 start.
The UT midfielder’s seventh shot led the team in kicks and gave her at least a point in each of the Lady Vols’ last three contests. Tennessee outshot its CAA opponent, 31-5.
“(I) just had to get myself relaxed and just focus on putting it in the back of the net,” Brown said of her game-winning kick that flew just past Tribe goalkeeper Caroline Casey into the top right corner deep in the net.
The final play was set up late in the second overtime when UT forward Katie Lenz fed a pass to Brown just outside the goalie box on the right side. When the UT midfielder went to turn and drive to the net, she tripped over Tribe defender Leci Irvin and drew the foul, setting up the penalty kick.
The Regal Stadium crowd, as it had been doing for the first 116 minutes of the game, went crazy once the whistle blew.
“It definitely helps having a crowd like that,” UT goalkeeper Julie Eckel said.
The Irvin foul was the Tribe’s ninth of the evening and the 22nd combined between both teams on a night that saw physical play from both sides like shoves, pushes and collisions.
The double-overtime classic is nothing new in the UT-Tribe rivalry; the other two times these two schools have faced—in 2003 and 2005—have been settled in double-overtime just as well with UT winning the first, 3-2.
“William & Mary is a very storied, historic program,” Pensky said. “John Daly does a great job there and we knew that we were going to have our hands full today.”
Casey turned in a nearly perfect performance on a day when the Lady Vols relentlessly outshot William & Mary 31-5; the Tribe goalie saved 11 of the 12 shots on goal. Her counterpart, Eckel, didn’t face many shots but capped a perfect night in net.
The Tribe defenders had to fight off 31 Lady Vol shots, including a 14-1 offensive attack by Tennessee in the first half. The only time the Tribe led in shots was 3-1 in the first overtime after surviving a 22-2 regulation shot gap by their SEC opponent.
“Getting (the victory) in this fashion, I think, gives us a little bit of justice,” Pensky said. “We’ve all been a part of games where it hasn’t gone our way. (I’m) happy for our kids, you know, obviously Caroline makes a difficult play where she’s pulled down. So a great way to start 3-0.”
If Friday night’s “first-ever” was exciting, as it was, the Lady Vols first-ever matchup with VCU on Sunday at Regal Soccer Stadium to close the Lady Vol Classic should be just as exciting.
