Kentucky Hosts No. 3 South Carolina in White Out at The Bell
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky women’s soccer continues Southeastern Conference play on Thursday night as the Wildcats play host to the No. 1 team in the NCAA RPI, and the No. 3 ranked team in the polls, South Carolina. The match will commence at 7:30 p.m. ET from the Bell Soccer Complex and will be shown live on the SEC Network+, ESPN3 and the ESPN app with Dave Baker (pxp) and Stuart Pope (color) on the call from Lexington.
Thursday night’s match is a White Out, with Big Blue Nation asked to wear all white to the match. It is also a Thunderstick Thursday, with UK soccer thundersticks given out to fans.
The team will then travel down to The Plains on Friday in preparation for an SEC Sunday showdown against Auburn at 3 p.m. ET on the SEC Network+ against the Tigers. Auburn is currently a game above the .500 mark and won its first SEC game of the season against No. 22 Texas A&M at home last weekend.
South Carolina comes to the Bell with a 7-1-0 overall record with its only loss coming at Wake Forest in August. The Gamecocks won their Southeastern Conference opener last weekend, with a win coming at home against Alabama. The Gamecocks also have quality wins over Michigan and then-No. 4 ranked Clemson thus far. South Carolina has three players with more than one goal each on the season, Savannah McCaskill (3), Elexa Bahr (4), and Bianca Galassini (2). Additionally, they have five other players who have scored this season.
Auburn is coming into the week with a 4-3-1 record for the season, including a double overtime loss to top-10 ranked Clemson in August. They currently sit at 1-0 in conference play, with a victory coming at home last week against No. 22 Texas A&M. Before playing Kentucky, the Tigers will travel to Knoxville on Thursday to take on Tennessee. Auburn has scored a total of 12 goals this season, with three each coming from Courtney Schell and Kristen Dodson. Additionally, the Tigers have six seniors on their team who have been part of back-to-back Sweet 16 runs on The Plains.
Kentucky enters the weekened at .500 (5-5-0) on the season after a 1-1-0 week against Lipscomb and at Tennessee last week. The Wildcats got goals from freshman Julia Grosso and junior Payton Atkins in a 2-0 win over the Lady Bisons at The Bell on Friday night before dropping a tight contest on Rocky Top in the SEC opener.
UK has last beaten both USC and Auburn in the same season back in 2014, when the Wildcats made a Sweet 16 run in the NCAA Tourney.
AUCTION
Fans can now enter an auction for all game-worn jerseys from Friday night’s match against Lipscomb. The link can be found above and bidding will end on Sept. 25 at 10 p.m. ET. All 24 player’s game-worn jerseys from tonight start at $50 with all the proceeds benefiting Dance Blue in the fight against pediatric cancer.
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.
