Aug. 20, 2010

Live blog | Video: Coach Lipsitz previews the season opener | Cat Scratches: UK women’s soccer hopes to build on foundation

Kentucky vs. Coastal Carolina Game Notes (.pdf)

The UK women’s soccer program kicks off the University of Kentucky Athletics calendar on Saturday when it hosts the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers at the UK Soccer Complex at 6 p.m. ET.

The match also represents the beginning of the second year in the Jon Lipsitz Era. Lipsitz enters the season with a 106-43-12 career record after one year at UK (5-10-4) and stops at Charlotte (58-23-4 in four years) and Denison (43-10-4 in three years) prior to coming to Lexington. His .696 winning percentage ranks second among active coaches in the Southeastern Conference.

Lipsitz is no stranger to success as his teams both saw improvement in his second year in his previous two stops.

In his rookie season at Denison, his team posted a 13-4-2 record, while in his second year they were 14-3-1. At Charlotte, his inaugural team produced an 11-9-0 record, while his second team went 13-5-2.

Saturday’s match marks the first meeting on the pitch between Kentucky and Coastal Carolina. However, Lipsitz is familiar with Chanticleer first-year coach Tammy DeCesare.

“Coastal (Carolina) has a new coach so I don’t think what we’ve seen from the past matters,” Lipsitz said. “Tammy (DeCesare) is a tremendous coach and someone I really respect who I knew when I was at Charlotte and she was at Western Carolina. We’ve been friends for a long time and one thing I can tell you about her teams is no one is going to play harder than her and they will be ready. There will be absolutely no doubt and they won’t be intimidated at all. At the same time, it’s our home field, it’s our opener. I’m sure she knows that we will be ready, also. So I’m excited for a great game and again if we can solve the problems of scoring goals which is the hardest thing in college soccer, or any soccer obviously, I think we’ll be pretty happy.”

In goal for the Wildcats will be senior goalie Sydney Hiance. Hiance enters the season ranked in UK’s top five of four goalkeeping categories. She ranks fourth in shutouts (15), minutes played (4286:38) and saves (185) and fifth in career GAA (1.28).

UK is 8-6-4 in season lid-lifters and 12-3-3 in home openers. The Cats defeated Cincinnati last year 2-1, its first win in a season-opening match since 2003.

Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. Live stats and blog will be available at UKathletics.com.