Oct. 27, 2003

One day after clinching the regular season Mid-American Conference championship with a 1-0 overtime win over Marshall, the Wildcats entered the Soccer America Top-25 at No. 24 and the College Soccer News Top-30 poll at the No. 28 spot. UK also received votes in the Soccer Times Top-25 poll. The Cats are also ranked fifth in the NSCAA Great Lakes Region. Meanwhile, junior Jamal Shteiwi was named the MAC Player-of-the-Week for the second time this season.

No. 24 Kentucky (11-4-1, 5-0-0 MAC) has won four straight games, all by way of shutouts, and is undefeated in the MAC through five contests. UK finishes its MAC regular season schedule Fri., Oct. 31 when it travels to Northern Illinois (3-11-2, 2-3-0 MAC). The Wildcats will play their regular season finale at No. 11 Indiana (8-3-4, 4-0-1 Big Ten) Sun., Nov. 2.

Shteiwi garnered Player-of-the-Week honors after recording an assist and perhaps the biggest goal of his career over the weekend. Friday against Buffalo, the Cincinnati, Ohio native picked up his 11th assist of the season on sophomore Thomas Senecal’s goal in the 24th minute of the game. The junior broke the Kentucky single-season assist record (9) against Western Michigan, Oct. 17.

Sunday, Shteiwi lifted the Cats to a 1-0 overtime victory over Marshall, with 30 seconds remaining in the extra period. The win clinched the MAC regular season title for Kentucky for the third time in four years.