The Kentucky women?s soccer team (14-6-3) will hit the road once more as they travel to Boulder, Colorado to take on the Denver Pioneers (18-2-1) in the first round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament.

The Wildcats, who are making their seventh appearance in the NCAA Tournament and their first since the 2002 season, earned the SEC?s automatic bid to the tournament winning the SEC Tournament championship. The team is currently riding a seven-match unbeaten streak, a stretch during which they?ve posted a 6-0-1 record, including the team?s run through the SEC Tournament.

?I think our confidence started back against Mississippi St. and has been building every weekend,? said head coach Warren Lipka. ?We?ve got to maintain a certain level of confidence now. We can?t be happy with just an SEC Tournament championship; we?ve got to continue to push on and set our bar higher and just look at this as another challenge.?

The match-up will be the first ever between Kentucky and Denver in women?s soccer, but Lipka knows that despite the lack of familiarity, the Wildcats will need to stick to their guns in order to be successful.

?We?ve got to continue to defend and work hard to make sure we deny any penetration with the ball and any quality shots; basically doing what we?ve been doing the last couple weeks.?

Kentucky will be looking for its first ever NCAA tournament victory while the winner of the match will face the winner of the game featuring Colorado College and host school Colorado.

UK is one of five SEC teams in the field of 64 joining Auburn, Florida, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. The Wildcats have faced seven other teams in the field and posted a 5-2-2 record against those teams.

Kickoff between the Wildcats and the Pioneers will be on Friday with a kickoff time to be announced.