Kentucky Hosts No. 8 South Carolina in Home Finale
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Playing at the Bell Soccer Complex for the final time in the regular season, Kentucky (9-4-2, 3-2-2 SEC) will square off against a top ten team for the first time when No. 8 South Carolina (10-1-4, 4-0-3 SEC) comes to Lexington. The Wildcats and the Gamecocks are set to kickoff at 7:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, October 16. Admission to the match is free for all fans and the match will be streamed live on SEC Network +.
In addition to being the regular season home finale, the match will serve as Kick Out Cancer: Breast Cancer Awareness night. Fans are encouraged to pink out the Bell and there will be a free pink scarf giveaway at the gate. Free Chick-Fil-A will be handed out while supplies last and the Markey Cancer Center will also be tabling on the concourse.
The Wildcats enter the match after a 1-1 tie at Ole Miss last Friday. Kentucky is winless in its last three matches since starting the league slate 3-1-0 but has secured a pair of road ties in that stretch. Thursday’s match will be the sixth time the Wildcats have faced a ranked opponent, with the squad holding a 2-3 record in those matches with victories over No. 20 Oklahoma and No. 25 Alabama.
Kentucky currently leads the country in corner kicks per game with 8.80 tries per match and in penalty kicks drawn with ten. Alexis Tylenda and Anna Sikorski each lead the team with seven goals scored this season, good enough for sixth in the SEC.
In goal, freshman Megan Holland earned her first career league start in last Friday’s match at Ole Miss. With fellow freshman Khadijah Cissé on international duty with Canada at the 2025 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco, Holland stepped into the starting role and helped the Wildcats secure a road point in Oxford.
The Gamecocks come to Lexington as the last team in the SEC that is unbeaten in conference play. After drawing three of four matches heading into last week, South Carolina earned a 5-1 home victory over Texas in its last outing.
South Carolina leads the all-time series 15-13-1, including winning the most recent matchup—a 1-0 victory in Columbia in 2024. The Wildcats played a ranked South Carolina side to a scoreless draw in the teams’ last meeting in Lexington in 2023. Kentucky is seeking its first win in the series since 2014.
Kentucky will continue the penultimate week of conference play on Sunday, October 19, traveling to Baton Rouge to take on (rv) LSU at 2 p.m. ET.
For the latest on UK Women’s Soccer, follow the Wildcats on Facebook, Instagram, X and at UKathletics.com.
