LEXINGTON ? The men?s soccer teams at Kentucky and Louisville kick off a rivalry week between the two schools when they meet on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Cardinal Park.
The game is the first of what will be meetings in three sports between the intra-state rivals. The two meet in women?s soccer on Sunday afternoon before a Sunday night clash between the football teams that will be televised by ESPN.
In the men?s soccer series, UK has turned it into a one-sided affair, winning each of the last four meetings and holding a 9-2-3 overall mark against the Cardinals. Last season, Riley O?Neill came off the bench to bury the game-winning goal in the 38th minute of a 1-0 victory.
O?Neill, often plagued by injuries over the past two seasons, has been fully healthy early this year, showing off his abilities with four goals in the Wildcats? two wins last weekend. For his efforts, he was named the Conference USA Offensive Player of the Week and to the collegesoccernews.com National Team of the Week.
While O?Neill has been finding the net at an incredible rate, the UK defense has been stonewalling opponents. The Wildcats allowed a single goal ? coming on a penalty kick ? in their two weekend wins.
Louisville has started the year 1-1 with a win over Marshall following a tough 4-3 loss to Memphis. The Cardinals are under the direction of first year head coach Ken Lolla who, as the previous head coach at Akron, has a history with Kentucky.
From 1999-2004, UK and Lolla?s Akron teams were chief rivals in the Mid-American Conference, battling annually for the league championship. In that span, UK won four MAC championships and three MAC Tournament titles. Akron won three league titles and two tournament titles.