Lopez's head matches her heart in UK win

By Jennifer Smith / jsmith3@herald-leader.com

Pablo Alcala | Staff

Louisville's Chelsea Hunter, left, stopped Kentucky's Giuleana Lopez during the second half Saturday night at UK. Lopez, a junior forward, provided the only goal of the match on a first-half header.

The scars crisscross Giuleana Lopez's knees like roads on a map.

They point to some of the most difficult junctures in the Kentucky junior's life.

"This one was the first ACL," Lopez said of her first of three anterior cruciate ligament surgeries.

"This one was next," she continued, pointing to her other knee.

In all, Lopez has had four major knee surgeries in six years, two anterior cruciate ligament tears on her right knee, one on her left and multiple meniscus tears on both.

Her most recent ACL was in 2007. It almost caused her to hang up her cleats for good.

"It was tough," she said of the countless hours of rehab and the emotional difficulty of coming back time and time again. "Not a lot of people survive ACLs. It's a really hard injury to come back from."

Most players would say they came back for moments like Lopez had on Saturday night versus rival Louisville, when she headed in the game winner with 26 minutes to play in the first half.

But not Lopez.

She said she only came back because she loves soccer.

"I don't even need to score goals," she said. "I do whatever I can for my team. I can sit on the bench and cheer."

New coach Jon Lipsitz can build a program with players like Lopez.

He's off to a good start.

With Saturday's 1-0 victory in front of 1,074 at the UK Soccer Complex, his team starts the season with two wins. UK went 5-12-2 last season.

"She had every reason to stop playing, but nothing could keep her away from the game," Lipsitz said of Lopez's countless comebacks. "Sometimes she's over-the-top passionate, but I'd rather coach players that are a little over the top emotionally than players that are beige."

Jenna Goblirsch, an Elizabethtown standout, sent a ball high into the air and it sailed toward the head of Lopez on the set play midway through the first half.

"I just went up for it," the 5-foot-8 Lopez said. "Somebody was going to get on the back of the ball and it was my turn, I guess."

The junior forward didn't even know it went past Louisville's freshman keeper Taylor Vancil until her teammates came running toward her.

UK went on the defensive after that, making its own adjustments to Louisville's tweaks. The Cats turned back the Cardinals' four shots on goal for the game.

Louisville (1-1) had nine overall shots to UK's five, but all five of the Cats' were on frame.

"It was a total team effort," UK keeper Sydney Hiance, a former star at Highlands, said of the shutout. "I'm really happy with the way we worked really hard to get the victory and dominate the state."

After grabbing that 1-0 lead, Lipsitz said his players were determined to make it stick.

"We made a decision this year that we're not going to give away leads," he said. "This program last year gave away a huge number of leads and we talked about it in pre-season and made the decision that we were not going to give away points."

Kentucky 1, Louisville 0

Goals — UK: Giuleana Lopez.

Goalkeepers — UL: Taylor Vancil; UK: Sydney Hiance.

Records — Louisville 1-1, Kentucky 2-0.