Sept. 27, 2009

COLUMBIA, SC – The University of Kentucky women’s soccer team looks to overcome the gut-wrenching loss at Florida Friday night, when they take on the 12th ranked (NSCAA) South Carolina Gamecocks (9-0-0, 1-0-0 SEC) on Sunday.

The Wildcats forced the 10th ranked Gators into overtime on Friday, but a penalty on Kentucky in the 18-yard box with under a minute left in the first overtime resulted in a Florida penalty kick. The Gators converted to avoid the upset bid.

So for UK head coach Jon Lipsitz, Saturday’s off day is more than just an opportunity to recover physically before tomorrow’s match.

“The first thing we have to do is emotionally recover,” said Lipsitz. “Usually you talk about physical recovery between Friday and Sunday and we know how difficult that is in the SEC, but first we need to emotionally recover because not only did we play a tremendous second half and take Florida into overtime there was a moment where we actually thought we had the game won.

“It’s devastating not just to lose that game, but to lose the way we did on a penalty kick, it’s a massive emotional letdown. The first thing we have to do is recover emotionally as a team. Then we’ll start to worry about South Carolina. They’re a fantastic team; they’re having a year for the ages for their program. We will obviously be prepared to play on Sunday and make sure it’s a tremendous match from beginning to end.”

The Wildcats lead the all-time series with the Gamecocks 10-4-0, but have lost two in a row to USC.

The Gamecocks enter the match undefeated on the year and have allowed only two goals all season.

Kentucky is led offensively by Giuleana Lopez who has a team best six points off two goals and two assists. Jenna Goblirsch has also recorded two goals for UK this season.

Wildcat goal Sydney Hiance has tallied a 0.61 goals-against-average thus far along with five shutouts.

Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Live stats and blog will be available at UKathletics.com.