The Kentucky women?s soccer team hits the road this week, beginning a five-match road stretch, their longest such streak of road games this season.
The Wildcats (4-2-0), who checked in at fifth in the latest NSCAA Great Lakes Region rankings, begin their road siege in Oxford, Ohio where they will take on the Miami (OH) Red Hawks (3-3-0) in their only mid-week match of the season. Kentucky owns a 2-0 all-time record against the Red Hawks which includes last season?s 2-0 victory in Lexington. The Cats will be looking to continue the momentum gained off last weekend?s Big 10 sweep.
?Every team wants to build off of the momentum they created on a successful weekend,? said head coach Warren Lipka. ?It?s what team can carry that momentum into their next match. That?s what we?re trying to get them to understand is that it was a great weekend and we got two great results. Now we?ve got to do it again on Wednesday in our next match. We haven?t achieved any of our goals yet; our goals are to win the SEC, to make it to the NCAA Tournament and go beyond that. This is just a stepping stone to those long range goals and we need to continue to progress forward if we want to achieve those goals.?
The Wildcats are led offensively by freshman Giuleana Lopez who has a team best nine points off three goals and three assists. Junior Sarah Gaunt is tied with Lopez for the team lead in goals with three while junior Megan Jones is tied with Lopez for the team lead in assists with three.
However, despite the Cats offensive attack, which ranks third in the SEC, Lipka knows his team will need to be at their best.
?Miami is going to have a very organized team,? said Lipka. ?People have to understand there?s no easy game on the schedule. Any team, any given day can beat anyone. You have to be mentally and physically prepared and you have to be ready to compete. This is one of those games that we need to come out and perform to compete in the match.?
Kickoff is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. ET at Miami Soccer Field. Live stats for the match will not be available. Following the Wednesday evening affair the team will head north to Wisconsin to take part in the Wisconsin Invitational.
