Nov. 5, 2002

The University of Kentucky women’s soccer team will travel to Oxford, Miss., to participate in its league-best 10th Southeastern Conference Tournament on Thursday, Nov. 7.

The No. 6 seed Wildcats (10-7-0/4-4-0 SEC) will face No. 3 seeded Mississippi in front of the Rebels’ (13-3-2/5-3-1 SEC) home crowd at the Ole Miss Soccer Stadium at 8:30 p.m. ET.

“I think getting the sixth seed puts us in a good position to right some of our wrongs against teams that we faced in the regular season,” Coach Warren Lipka said. “We’re playing our best soccer that we’ve played all year, and I feel we’ll be ready for the challenge of facing Ole Miss in front of its home crowd.”

The Rebels defeated the Wildcats for the first time this season in a 1-0 shutout at the UK Soccer Complex on Oct. 18. Kentucky owns a 5-1-0 series lead over Ole Miss, including a perfect 3-0-0 mark when playing in Oxford. The clubs have met once in the SEC Tournament with the Cats winning, 4-1, in the quarterfinal round in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Nov. 5, 1998.

“Ole Miss brings a team which has had a great run,” Lipka said. “They are playing very well at the right time of the year. They have a talented attacking player in Kelly Renie and a very good defender in Kristin Chapman. Coach (Steve) Holeman will have his team well organized and ready to play.”

UK is an even 7-7-1 in SEC Tournament play. Last season, UK defeated No. 18 Tennessee, 4-2, in first-round action, but fell victim to an Abbie Wambach hat trick to fall to No. 6 Florida, 3-1, in the semifinals in Baton Rouge. The Cats claimed the 1995 SEC Championship by winning the tournament held in Auburn.

Live stats for all UK tournament games can be accessed at UKathletics.com.

– UK –