Utah Soccer Falls at Georgia, 3-0

Friday, August 27

Athens, Ga.

5:00 PM

University of Utah

Georgia

8/27/2010 12:00 AM | Soccer

Aug. 27, 2010

Box Score

ATHENS, Ga. - The University of Utah soccer team (0-3) fell to Georgia (1-1) Friday night in Athens by a 3-0 score. The Utes held the Bulldogs scoreless through the first half but were unable to respond after UGA broke the tie in the 50th minute of play.

Nicole Locandro scored the first goal and eventual game winner for Georgia, one-timing a cross from Carli Shultis into the back of the net at 49:45.

The Bulldogs netted their second goal in the 78th minute amid some controversy as the Utes thought play had stopped due to a foul flagged by the referee's assistant. The ball was still live however, and Locandro played it into the box, finding Newfield for the tap-in to give the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead. The final UGA goal came off the foot of Susannah Dennis as she struck a one-time ball from about 10 yards out to finish off of the cross from Newfield less than a minute after the second goal.

Utah put up a solid defensive effort in the first frame but struggled to get the offense going. The Utes came out firing in the second half, forcing Georgia goalkeeper Ashley Baker to make some solid saves and come off her line on a few dangerous set pieces, but were just unable to find the goal. Senior forward Lauren Hair led the Utes with two shots on goal.

"I was really proud of our effort tonight against a really good Georgia team," said Utah head coach Rich Manning. " They really pushed us hard in the first half and I thought we really pushed back in the second half. We had a lot of new players step up and we had some veterans playing new positions. I thought we were unlucky not to equalize after they scored. The turning point in the game was the goal on the foul that wasn't called, but that's just another lesson for us to learn from. We have a lot of things to work and we will bounce back and try to give a great effort against UNCG on Sunday."

Utah was outshot 20-12, with shots on goal going 10-5 for the Bulldogs. Utah took three corner kicks to Georgia's seven, while UGA committed 16 fouls to Utah's five. Junior goalkeeper Hannah Turpen made seven saves for the Utes, while Baker finished the game with five.

Utah gets back into action at the Georgia Nike Invitational on Sunday as the Utes take on UNC Greensboro (2-0) in a neutral-site contest at the UGA Soccer Complex.