Oct. 29, 2009
LEXINGTON, KY – The UK women’s soccer team (5-9-4, 2-7-1 SEC) closes out the 2009 season on Friday in Nashville, Tenn. taking on the Vanderbilt Commodores (10-7-1, 4-6-0).
The Wildcats enter the season finale having dropped two straight, eliminating them from this year’s SEC Tournament, but that doesn’t keep head coach Jon Lipsitz from motivating his team.
“I told the team that there’s not greater reason to play than for pride,” said Lipsitz. “The reasons we play and train every day is to see how good we can be, both individually and collectively, and that’s not about championships, that’s about being motivated intrinsically to be successful. (Vanderbilt) is in a position we wish we were in, but we’re not. We’re still going to play just as hard as we would if this were a championship game, because for us it is.”
The Commodores possess an attack that Lipsitz equates to Ole Miss, who’s four goals against the Wildcats last week, were the most given up by the UK defense this year.
“They’re very dynamic in the attack,” said Lipsitz. “Everybody’s been saying that they’ve been on the verge of breaking out. They’ve had several games with multiple shots off post and barely missing the net, and we know they’re capable of an offensive explosion. I think they’re very similar to Ole Miss, who we clearly struggled against. Our challenge is to solve the problems we had against Ole Miss and show how much we’ve improved.”
The series between the two schools is tied at 11-11-0. The Wildcats have won three in a row against the Commodores, eight of the last nine and four of the last five in Nashville.
Kickoff is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. ET. Live stats and blog will be available at UKathletics.com.
