Sept. 2, 1999

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Wildcats will get their season into full swing this weekend in Blacksburg, Va. at the Virginia Tech Invitational. The Cats will match-up with host Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois and Villanova to play three matches in two days from Sept. 3-4.

The Cats? weekend should provide a clear picture of how far along as ateam the 1999 squad is. UK opens up with Virginia Tech on Friday night. TheHokies were 21-9 a year ago and made it to the championship game of theAtlantic 10 Conference Tourney. The team returns half of its starting lineup,but the team is rather inexperienced with 11 freshmen or sophomores on theroster. VT opened the season on Sept. 1 with a 3-0 loss at Virginia.

On Saturday morning, UK will play Northern Illinois, a team that was27-7 last fall and runner-up in the Mid-American Conference. The Huskies willplay their season-opener Friday against Villanova. Later Saturday afternoon,the Cats will battle against another team of Wildcats, those from Villanova, toclose the tourney. ?Nova was 12-17 last season, but return four experiencedstarters from that team who figure to make this ?Cat fight? very competitive.

UK won its season-opener against Eastern Kentucky, 3-1, on Sept. 1 atMemorial Coliseum.