Oct. 27, 2009

ORLANDO — The Kentucky men’s soccer team returns to action kicking off a two-match road swing through Florida, facing Central Florida Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. ET and Florida International Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.

Kentucky (9-5-0, 2-3-0 Conference USA) sits in sixth-place in C-USA with three league contests remaining, with the conference taking the top four teams in the league tournament. The Wildcats have the two games in Florida, before wrapping up conference season with a 1 p.m. ET match with league-power SMU Wednesday, Nov. 4 at the UK Soccer Complex.

UK has not played since Oct. 17, a 1-0 win at South Carolina, who ranked No. 7 in the NCAA in RPI at the time of the match. The Wildcats have won two of the last three, with the lone loss coming at No. 7 Louisville.

Offensively, freshman midfielder Matt Lodge paces the Wildcats with six goals and an assist through his first 12 college games. Junior midfielder Tyler Burns has logged three goals, while senior co-captain Jason Griffiths has two goals and one assist. Senior Marco dos Santos and junior C.J. Tappel lead UK with three assists each. In goal, UK senior goalkeeper Dan Williams has totaled a league-leading 0.85 goals-against average, saving 36 shots and totaling four shutouts.

UCF (6-5-2, 2-3-0 C-USA) also sits in sixth place in league play, with just three conference games remaining. The Golden Knights have been led by Nik Robson, who has four goals and five assists, Yaron Bacher (three goals, two assists) and Benjamin Hunt (three goals). In goal, first-year starter Shawn Doyle has allowed 18 goals in 12 games, good for a 1.47 goals-against average, saving 51 shots with three shutouts.

The Wildcats lead the all-time series with UCF 4-1-1, with the lone loss coming on the road in 2005, a 2-1 setback. Last year, UK got a 2-1 win in Lexington against the Golden Knights.

The match will be covered extensively by UKathletics.com, with an interactive live blog available for Wednesday’s match from UCF, as well as complete post-game coverage.