Razorbacks defeat kansas in season opener

August 23, 2013

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas soccer team defeated the Kansas Jayhawks by a score of 1-0 on Friday night in Fayetteville. Sophomore Ashleigh Ellenwood scored the lone goal in the match off the dish from freshman Claire Kelley.

“We are going to try and stay grounded,” head coach Colby Hale said. “We are going to take things day-by-day and look at what some of the things are that we did well and what are some things we need to improve on. The defense was really grinding tough tonight, Kansas has a lot of good attackers and they really stepped up for us.”

The Arkansas Razorbacks (1-0, 0-0) picked up the season opening win over the Jayhawks (0-1, 0-0) in front of a record crowd of 1,385 fans, which is good for the fourth-best attendance in Razorback Field history.

The Razorbacks controlled the ball on the offensive side of the game tallying nine total shots with five shots on goal. Junior Tyler Allen led the way with two shots on goal for the team, followed by junior Jeriann Okoro and sophomores Margaret Power and Ellenwood each with one shot on goal.

“We had some game plans going into tonight’s game,” defender Power said. “We wanted to win all of our one-on-one battles on the defensive side, we wanted win the ball in the air and not let in any easy crosses and I thought we did a great job tonight.”

Arkansas defense helped solidify the win on the night. The Jayhawks fired in 11 shots with 5 being on goal. Arkansas freshman goal keeper Cameron Carter collected her first shutout of her young Razorback career.

“The fans were unbelievable tonight,” hale said. “That was a big time crowd for us, the fans were screaming and cheering for us and it awesome.”

The Razorbacks return to the pitch on Sunday Aug. 25, to face the SMU Mustangs. The match is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. (CT).

For more information on Arkansas Soccer, follow @RazorbackSoccer on Twitter.