On an excellent night for soccer at WSU's Alumni Field, a header goal by Zach Zwiesler off of a Gustav Svensson corner kick in the 53rd minute lifted the Wright State men's soccer team to a season-opening 1-0 win over Conference USA's Kentucky Friday night.

In front of more than 1,300 fans, the Raiders dominated from start to finish, turning in a key defensive performance by allowing only three shots on goal by the Wildcats.  UK had several opportunities but the Raider defense consistently turned them away.

"I was really pleased to see the work we put in over the past week come out on the field." WSU head coach Bryan Davis said.  "The guys brought great energy but, more importantly, attention to details within the game to grab the lead and really control the tempo of a large portion of the game."

"Kentucky is a very good team that will win its fair share of games, so for us it was a great test.  We have a lot to fix, that's for sure.  The real challenge now is to build on this and have a better performance as a team on Monday, which is the challenge we will ask of our guys as soon as training tomorrow."

After a scoreless first half that saw each team take three shots, the WSU offense came alive at the 52:37 mark of the second half as Svensson's corner kick from the left side found Zwiesler, who headed it into the left side of the goal.  Preseason all conference pick Eric Lynch ended with four shots, including two on goal.  Zwiesler recorded two shots while Wes Cain, Chris Dupont and Emeka Ononye had one each.

It was left to the defense from there as they preserved the shutout despite the Wildcats holding a 10-9 shot advantage.  Sophomore goalkeeper Tyler Blackmer picked the third shutout of his career as he recorded three saves.

Wright State improved to 3-0-3 against UK all-time.  Wright State (1-0) travels down I-75 Monday for a Labor Day matchup at Cincinnati, coached by former Raider great Hylton Dayes, starting at 7:00.