LEXINGTON ? With the World Cup over, fans can start preparing for the 2006 Kentucky soccer season as the team announced this season?s schedule on Monday.
The slate should please soccer fans in the bluegrass as the Wildcats play 12 home games, up three from a year ago when UK ranked 21st in the nation in attendance. Highlighting the home schedule are Akron, which held down the No. 1 ranking most of the season a year ago, South Carolina, the C-USA Tournament Champion, and Michigan, which has ranked in the top 20 each of the past two seasons.
Despite only seven road contests, they present a tough road. Kentucky travels to six-time national champion Indiana, rival Louisville and 2006 College Cup participant SMU.
The season kicks off on Aug. 25 with the annual UK Invitational in which the Wildcats host Wisconsin-Green Bay, Florida Atlantic and IUPUI. After a trip to Louisville, Belmont and Georgetown come to the UK Soccer Complex.
Another road trip, this time to UNC-Asheville, is sandwiched in before a four-game homestand that features the Wolverines, Mount St. Mary?s, Alabama A&M and the Zips. The trip to Indiana wraps up the non-conference portion of the schedule on Sept. 27.
?I think our non-conference schedule is great preparation for Conference USA,? Kentucky coach Ian Collins said. ?We get to play in front of our home crowd a lot, which should help with our new players, but we also play some very tough competition. It?s great for us to be able to keep our rivalries with Akron and Louisville as well as resume our series with Indiana.?
Once in October, the gauntlet of conference play begins. The Wildcats open league play on Oct. 1 against the Gamecocks before heading to Dallas to square off with the Mustangs. The two teams finished 1-2 in conference play last year.
Joining South Carolina on the conference home slate are UCF, FIU and Memphis. Kentucky travels to SMU, UAB, Marshall and Tulsa.
“There is no doubt that Conference USA is one of the toughest leagues in the country,” Collins said. ?Last year, everybody kind of beat each other up, but you could see how strong the league was with SMU reaching the final four.?
This season will be Kentucky’s second in Conference USA after dominating the Mid-American Conference by winning four league titles in its final five years. The nine-team CUSA lost one member from last year as East Carolina dropped soccer.
The Wildcats enter the season with seven returning starters, including three of their top four scorers. In addition to the strong nucleus, UK adds a stellar recruiting class that features a pair of high school All-Americans and goalkeeper Matt Troop, who transferred from Dayton after being named a Freshman All-American in 2004.
