Oct. 2, 2002

The University of Kentucky women’s soccer team begins an eight-game Southeastern Conference stretch when it plays host to South Carolina on Friday, Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m. ET. The Wildcats (6-3-0/1-0-0 SEC) have won all seven meetings with the Gamecocks (8-2-0/1-0-0 SEC) since their inaugural meeting in 1995.

“South Carolina is a much-improved team from a year ago,” Coach Warren Lipka said. “Coach (Shelley) Smith is in her second season and the players are beginning to adapt to her style. Any time a new coach comes in, there’s a learning curve and the players are now responding to her ideas and coaching. Beating Florida was huge for their program.”

The Gamecocks are riding the crest of a five-match winning streak into the Bluegrass, highlighted by last Sunday’s 1-0 overtime win over Florida in Columbia. Ashley Williams was awarded SEC Player of the Week honors on Monday after the sophomore forward scored the game-winning goal to give the Cocks their first win over the Gators in 10 attempts. The South Carolina victory was only the fourth loss in conference play for Florida in the past eight seasons. Coming off a medical redshirt season in 2001, senior Morgan McIntyre paces USC with seven goals on 24 shots for a team-high 14 points.

After dropping three of its previous four games, UK got back to its winning ways with a 2-1 SEC victory over Vanderbilt on Sept. 28 and a 2-1 win over Arizona on Sept. 29. Junior midfielder Elizabeth Ramsey, the Cats’ leader in goals (4), assists (4), points (12) and shots (25), has moved into sole possession of fifth place on UK’s all-time points list with 63. The Wildcat co-captain has collected 25 assists for her career and needs only eight helpers to equal Annie Gage’s record-setting 33 tallied from 1997-2001.

Florida (3-6-1/0-1-0 SEC) will visit Lexington on Sunday, Oct. 6 for a 2 p.m. ET match to complete the weekend. The Wildcats will look to make history this season by being the first team to defeat the Gators. Since meeting for the first time on Sept. 8, 1995, Florida has gone 10-0-0 against Kentucky, including three SEC Tournament wins. Last season, UK fell 5-1 to UF in Gainesville on Oct. 7 and 3-1 in Baton Rouge at the SEC Tournament on Nov. 9.

Tickets to the matches are $5 for adults, $2 for children and senior citizens, and free with a valid student I.D. Live in-game scoring can be accessed at Ukathletics.com.

– UK –