Men's Soccer

Aug. 18, 2008

IRVING, Texas — Kentucky junior defender Barry Rice, the reigning conference Defensive Player of the Year, has been selected by the league’s coaches as the 2008 preseason Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year, it was announced on Monday.Rice, a native of Parma, Ohio, is the second consecutive UK player named the conference defensive player of the year in the preseason, as last year Nathan Marks earned the honor. Rice had a career year for UK in 2007, leading the Wildcats in nearly every offensive category, including goals (7), points (15), games started (18) and game winners (3). While picking up the slack for an injury riddled team in 2007, Rice carried the load offensively, scoring all of his seven goals off set pieces. An athletic 5-foot-11 defender, Rice brings tremendous leadership on and off the field. Rice was also named to the preseason All-Conference team, only of four defensive players on the team.

The league’s coaches selected Kentucky to finish fourth in the conference, with 2007 champion Tulsa voted to repeat in 2008. SMU, who lost to UK as the No. 1 team in the nation last November, was picked to finish second, with South Carolina tabbed third.

UK senior midfielder Masumi Turnbull was also picked by the coaches as a member of the preseason C-USA All-Conference team. Turnbull, a native of Richmond, British Columbia, led UK in assists for the second consecutive year, doling out seven on the season. Turnbull finished with one goal on nine shots, primarily handling corner kicks for the Wildcats, while starting 18 games and seeing action in 1552 minutes. Turnbull ranked third in the league in both assists and assists per game.

Kentucky opens its exhibition season with a match at Dayton on Monday night, before wrapping up the preseason with a home game vs. West Virginia on August 23. UK will open its season on August 29 at 7:30 p.m. ET with the UK Invitational, welcoming Central Arkansas and Detroit for the weekend.


2008 C-USA MEN’S SOCCER PRESEASON AWARDS

2008 C-USA PRESEASON OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Juan Guerra, Jr., F, Florida International

2008 C-USA PRESEASON DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Barry Rice, Jr., D, Kentucky

2008 PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE USA TEAM

Juan Guerra, Jr., F, Florida International

Barry Rice, Jr., D, Kentucky
Masumi Turnbull, Sr., MF, Kentucky


Michael Coburn, Sr., D, Memphis
Ryan Mirsky, Sr., D, SMU
Jimmy Maurer, So., GK, South Carolina
Jeff Scanella, Jr., MF, South Carolina
Chris Clements, Sr., D, Tulsa
Eric DeFreitas, Sr., MF, Tulsa
Jose Parada, Jr., F, Tulsa
Ryan Roushandel, Sr., F, UCF

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