Sept. 27, 2002
The University of Kentucky women’s soccer team will open Southeastern Conference play on Saturday, Sept. 28 when it plays host to Vanderbilt at the UK Soccer Complex in a 1 p.m. ET match. Though the Wildcats (4-3-0) have won the past three meetings, the Commodores (2-4-0) lead the overall series 10-6-0.
“It’s the beginning of our second season,” Coach Warren Lipka said. “Every match we play is important, but there’s always an added pressure when you play the conference schools – especially those in your division. Vanderbilt is coming off a nice win at SMU and they’ll come at us. I think the break in our schedule benefited us. It gave us some time to fix the technical mistakes we were making.”
In its previous outing, Vanderbilt claimed a 2-1 victory over SMU in Dallas last Sunday, Sept. 22. Lizzy Johnson netted the game winner off a Jen Talavera pass to snap a three-match losing streak. Junior midfielder Michelle Bruntlett paces the Commodore offense with two goals and four points through six games, while Texas A&M transfer Esther Thompson brings experience and leadership in the VU goal. Thompson, a junior goalkeeper from Waxhaw, N.C., spent the previous two seasons in College Station where she led the Aggies to two top-15 finishes and a trip to the NCAA quarterfinals in 2001.
The Wildcats are coming off a much-needed open weekend having lost three of their past four matches after beginning the 2002 campaign 3-0-0. Junior midfielder Elizabeth Ramsey continues to lead UK in all offensive categories, posting three goals, two assists, eight points and 21 shots. Liz Butler has played every minute between the pipes this season for the Cats. The redshirt freshman goalkeeper owns a 1.12 GAA and has collected 17 saves in 641:56 minutes.
UK is 2-7-0 when starting SEC play and is 4-4-0 in conference home openers. The Cats are 2-1-0 when opening league action vs. Vandy, including a 1-0 win last season when Alli Haeussler found the net off a corner kick from Annie Gage with seven minutes remaining at the Vanderbilt Soccer Field. Overall, the SEC Eastern Division rivals have met three times in the SEC Tournament (1993, 95, 97) and twice in the NCAA Tournament (1995, 96). UK is 3-5-0 at home, 2-4-0 away and 1-1-0 on neutral fields vs. VU. Coach Warren Lipka brings a 44-21-0 (.677) regular season league mark into Saturday’s contest.
Kentucky will complete its weekend schedule with a 7 p.m. ET match with Arizona (3-2-1) at the UK Soccer Complex. Sunday’s match-up with the Wildcats is the inaugural meeting between UK and UA.
– UK –
