Oct. 7, 2010
UK vs. LSU_Arkansas Game Notes (.pdf)
LEXINGTON, Ky. – In the midst of a four-game road stretch, the UK women’s soccer team (7-4-1, 1-2-1 SEC) travels to LSU (4-5-3, 1-1-2) to kick-off its final full road weekend of the season.
Fresh off a successful weekend that saw the Wildcats collect four points on the road, the first time since 2004, UK carries its momentum to a venue that has been somewhat favorable for the Cats over the years.
Kentucky holds a 9-2-2 record against LSU and is 4-2-0 in Baton Rouge. However, the Wildcats haven’t won on the Tigers’ turf since the 2004 season. Included in UK’s record against LSU is the Cats 1-0 upset of the 13th ranked Tigers last year in Lexington.
And while the Cats are preparing for LSU, UK head coach Jon Lipsitz is concentrating just as much on fine-tuning and polishing his team.
“From this point on, we simplify training,” Lipsitz said. “We’ve thrown a lot of information at them and now practice gets a little repetitive. We’re doing the same activities that we were doing earlier in the year. We’re coming back to similar themes. It’s not really about anything new, it’s about polishing everything. I like to use the word `polishing’ because we’re not going to change our team and we don’t want to. We just want to polish what we do.”
Following UK’s tilt in Baton Rouge, the Cats will head to Fayetteville to take on the Razorbacks, however Lipsitz isn’t focusing on anything but what lies directly ahead and what he’s dealing with in the present. In doing so, he’s quite pleased with what he sees.
“I don’t readily set season long goals, because so many things happen,” Lipsitz said. “In order to evaluate this team, I have to evaluate it based on the stunning number of injuries we’ve had. The fact that we have not been able to keep our line-up set game-to-game because of injuries is a challenge. I’m looking at a team where we’re starting six freshmen going into a game against Tennessee who is starting zero freshmen, on the road. So when I evaluate them based upon where we are in terms of injuries and youth, I’m very happy; not satisfied, but very happy with where we are. If I evaluate based upon where could we be today and where we are, we’re about as far as we could be right now.”
The Wildcats enter the weekend led offensively by junior Kelsey Hunyadi who ranks fifth in the SEC with a team-leading six goals. Hunyadi has tallied a team best 12 points, and is followed closely by freshman Caitlin Landis, who has posted nine points on four goals and an assist.
Landis enters the weekend as the defending SEC Offensive Player of the Week after her performance last weekend at No. 7 Georgia and Tennessee. She assisted on a goal at Georgia and scored the game-winner at Tennessee.
Senior goalie Sydney Hiance ranks second on UK’s all-time shutout list with 20, five coming this season.
UK and LSU are scheduled for an 8:00 p.m. ET kick-off. Live stats will be available UKathletics.com.
