TULSA, Okla. ? The 13th-ranked Kentucky soccer team puts its four-game win streak on the line Friday at 7:30 p.m. CT when it faces host Tulsa in the semifinals of the Conference USA Tournament at the Hurricane Soccer and Track Complex.
The second-seeded Wildcats pounded Memphis, 3-1, in the first round to set up the contest with the third-seeded Golden Hurricane, which throttled Central Florida, 5-0, in its opener. The game comes nine days after UK scored a 1-0 road victory over Tulsa on the same field the teams meet on Friday.
In that game, Kentucky (13-4-2) controlled the run of play for most of the contest and Matt Baum buried the game-winning goal on a header in the 64th minute.
Riley O?Neill, who set the UK single-season school record with his 17th goal last year, enters the game having scored five goals in the last four games since returning from a back injury that forced him to miss a contest at Marshall. In that span, the Wildcats have not lost and O?Neill has two multi-goal games and three game winners.
Meanwhile, the defense has held seven straight opponents to one goal or less and UK is 4-0 since Matt Troop took over the starting goalkeeper role. He has a miniscule 0.56 goals-against average for the season.
With a victory, Kentucky would reach the 14-win plateau for just the third time in school history, the most recent of which came in 2001 when UK last won a conference tournament.
Li Named to a Pair of Academic Teams: Senior co-captain Nathan Li has earned a pair of academic honors this week.
On Tuesday, the Wildcat defender was chosen to the Conference USA All-Academic team, one of just 11 players in the conference picked. Then Wednesday, he earned Academic All-Region honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America. That selection makes him eligible for Academic All-America honors.
Li is a four-year starter for Kentucky who ranks in the top 10 in school history in games played and started. He is a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll while also having been inducted into the UK Society of Character.
