Aug. 20, 2009
Game Notes vs. Cincinnati
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The Jon Lipsitz Era will officially get underway on Friday night as the UK women’s soccer team opens their 2009 season at UK Soccer Complex, hosting the Cincinnati Bearcats.
UK returns 17 letterwinners, including eight starters, from last year’s squad, while adding 12 newcomers. However, the biggest addition is that of Lipsitz, who is in his first year as the UK skipper, and his ninth year as a head coach.
Lipsitz brings a 101-33-8 career record after stops at Charlotte (58-23-4 in four years) and Denison (43-10-4 in three years) prior to coming to Lexington. While in Charlotte, he led the 49ers to three straight Atlantic 10 titles in 2006, ’07 and ’08. Each season, Charlotte increased their win total going from 11 in 2005, to 13 in 2006, to 16 in 2007, to a school record 18 in 2008.
“It’s a moment of great excitement for everybody involved with the program,” said Lipsitz. “It’s the beginning of a new moment in the program’s history and what we want to do is make sure we go out and do it as a family and understand that our success will come from what we do together, not as individuals, but as a group. We’ve had a very good preseason; they’ve worked extremely hard and I’m just excited to see how that translates into a match against another team. But certainly the result tomorrow night will be a direct reflection of what we’re doing as a team, not individually.”
UK’s leading scorer from the last two years, Laura Novikoff, returns, as does offensive threat Giuleana Lopez. Defensively, the Cats return Julie Hull and Jenna Goblirsch from the back line as well as goalies Sydney Hiance and Laura Burton. Hiance got the majority of the starts last season, but Burton received the starting nod the final four games of the season, earning a shutout against Vanderbilt in the season finale.
Friday’s match marks the third time UK has played its season lid lifter against the Bearcats, earning a 1-1 mark in the previous matches.
Kentucky is 7-6-4 in season openers and 11-3-3 in home openers. The Cats have not won a season-opening match since 2003, a 6-0 victory over Davidson. The Wildcats lost to the eighth ranked Texas Longhorns 3-1, to open last season. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the UK Soccer Complex. Fans in attendance will receive a $5 food voucher at the gate. Live stats will be available at ukathletics.com.
