Nov. 14, 2008
LEXINGTON, Ky. — In its final home match of the 2008 fall season, the Kentucky rifle team returns to action, facing West Virginia in a Saturday matchup at UK’s Barker Hall.
“This will be one of many tough matches to come,” Kentucky head coach Harry Mullins said. “West Virginia is No. 2 in the nation right now and we are No. 3. The past few years, we have controlled the series yet West Virginia has a very talented team this year. They are very eager to turn it back in their favor, especially since we will face them three times this year – once in the regular season, once in the conference championships and then if we both make the NCAA Championships.”
The Wildcats are coming off a tri-match win over Army and Memphis last weekend, getting solid scores from freshman Megan English – tabbed the UK shooter of the match – and All-American Tom Csenge. Csenge tallied a match-best 590 in air rifle and English claimed the overall match win with an 1172 total score.
“This will be a good test for both teams on how to handle the pressure of wanting to win a match where you are equally matched. Because both teams are so similar, we could see the end result come down to just a few points one way or another.”
Kentucky, who wraps up the fall season by traveling to Dallas next weekend to face TCU, has one lone blemish on its record, a setback to the two-time defending NCAA Champions, Alaska in Fairbanks, Alaska.
“West Virginia has been putting up some really strong smallbore numbers so far this year, “Mullins said. “Smallbore has been our biggest weakness so far. We have the talent to shoot the numbers, we just haven’t seen the score yet from this years team. Our air rifle has been carrying us, but it will be hard to survive this match with just air rifle scores. We are going to have to have some of our smallbore shooters step up and accept the challenge of having a solid performance.
“West Virginia is deep in both events and is very hungry to get their program back up to the NCAA Championship level. This will be a test of who can keep the focus on the task and that is to bring home quality shots.”
