Kentucky Hosts Two Ranked Teams in Home Opening Weekend
LEXINGTON, Kentucky – The University of
Kentucky women’s soccer team will open its 2016 home slate of matches this
weekend at the Bell Soccer Complex. On Thursday night, UK will play the No. 23
South Florida Bulls at 7:30 p.m. ET in its home opener before a Sunday weekend
cap off against the No. 25 Northwestern Wildcats out of the Big 10 on Sunday
afternoon at 1 p.m. ET.
Both games can be seen live on the SEC
Network+, ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app with Neil Price (pxp) and Stuart Pope
(color) calling the matches.
Thursday’s match against No. 23 South Florida
will feature free pizza for all UK students that are in attendance for the
match. Sunday’s promotion is “Dollar Dog Sunday”, where fans can bring
well-behaved dogs on a leash and get in for $1.
Kentucky went on the road to start the 2016
season and went 0-1-1 with a result at Long Beach State in a 1-1 draw to open
the season, before suffering a 3-0 loss to the Pepperdine Waves in Malibu. Katy
Keen scored Kentucky’s only goal of the weekend in the 30th minute against Long
Beach State to put UK up 1 0 before LBSU equalized a few minutes later and hung
on for a draw.
The Wildcats went with freshman goalkeeper
Evangeline Soucie in net for both games, as she made two great saves on Friday
night, and one great save as part of her two in Sunday’s match. This marks the
third time in the last four seasons that UK is starting the season with a true freshman
in goal.
Kentucky has had a great deal of success in
home openers, having gone 6-0-1 under Jon Lipsitz, and unbeaten in the last 18
years – since 1997 in a home opener. Last year, UK beat Sweet 16 team Washington
on opening night 1-0 off a Courtney Raetzman direct corner kick.
South Florida enters the weekend 2-0-0 on the
year with wins over Louisiana Monroe (2-0) and Florida International (3-2, OT).
The Bulls are coming off of a 15-4-3 season a year ago that saw them advance to
the championship match of the 2015 AAC Tournament, and the first round of the
NCAA Tournament, where they were upset at home by Florida Gulf Coast. This weekend’s
matchup marks the first all time meeting between UK and South Florida.
Northwestern is 2-0-0 on the year with two
wins on opening weekend against VCU (1-0) and James Madison (3-0). The Wildcats
pitched shutouts in both matches, behind goalkeeper Lauren Clem. Clem was only forced
to make two saves in NU’s 3-0 win on Sunday over James Madison. This weekend’s
matchup marks the sixth all-time meeting between UK and Northwestern. The two
teams first met in 1996 in Lexington 20 years ago, as UK won 1-0. Kentucky leads
the all-time series with Northwestern 4-1 with the team’s last meeting coming
in 2006, when UK won 2-1 in overtime. UK leads the all-time goals count with NU
10-5, and is 2-0-0 against the Wildcats at home.
Match Central
Match Day 3 – vs. #23 South Florida (SEC
Network+, ESPN3, WatchESPN app)
7:30 p.m. ET, Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer
Complex
Match Day 4 – vs. #25 Northwestern (SEC
Network+, ESPN3, WatchESPN app)
1 p.m. ET, Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer
Complex
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s soccer team, follow @UKWomensSoccer on Twitter,
Instagram and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
