The one constant when you talk to women’s soccer head coach Jon Lipsitz is he’s huge on changing the culture of the program. But even the most hard-working kids and the most dedicated players need to have something to make them believe.
They need results.
It’s taken a year’s time, but after the first four games of the Kentucky women’s soccer season, the players are starting to see the progress of their work. The Cats are off to a bit of a surprise start heading into Thursday’s 7 p.m. match with No. 18 Louisville (Fox Sports Channel).
UK is 3-1 after three weeks of the season, including a 2-1 upset of No. 15 Virginia Tech last weekend in the ACC/SEC Challenge.
“Before, it’s all a leap of faith and you are saying this will make a difference, this really will change if we take care of our bodies, if we get more sleep, if our nutrition is better, if we’re better teammates, if we support one another and if we work harder on a daily basis,” said Lipsitz, now in his second year on the job. “All of these things about being a family at the University of Kentucky will pay off, easy for me to say. But they’ve totally bought into all of it, they believe it in their hearts and to have success out of that makes it so I don’t have a lot to say. They get it.”
The difference in the early going has been the offense. After scoring a Southeastern Conference-low 11 goals all of last season, the Cats already have eight through four games thanks to a massive influx of firepower from freshmen and transfers.
“We are much more dynamic going forward, and the irony of course is that my biggest concern right now is that I don’t feel like we’ve been defending our own box well,” Lipsitz said. “Last year we spent the majority of games bunkered in and teams were serving our box and we were tremendously good at it.
“One of my concerns as we become better in attacking is we sort of lost a bit of our edge defensively. So you can believe we’ve talked about that and worked on that a lot this week. Those are still our core roots and if we don’t win the ball and defend hard, there is no offense to be played. Let’s remember what we’re about and then let’s attack like crazy out of it.”
One of the biggest additions to the team this year has been Kelsey Hunyadi, who leads the team with three goals and six points. The junior forward transferred after two seasons with Louisville, starting all 19 matches for the Cardinals in 2008 with two goals – both game-winners – and two assists.
Lipsitz decided to redshirt Hunyadi and fellow junior transfer Natalie Horner (one goal, one assist) last season to get ahead academically and learn what the program was about. It didn’t hurt to save the impact players a year of eligibility during a major rebuilding effort last season either.
So far, the moves have paid major dividends.
“(Hunyadi’s) played very well, and one of the things you can count on with Kelsey is even if she’s having a rough game, her work is there and her leadership is there,” Lipsitz said. “One of the things we talk about a lot is no matter what is going on in the game, how can you impact it? Kelsey, besides being a great player on the ball, is learning how to impact the game more with her runs off the ball and her leadership. She’s becoming much more of a well-rounded player rather than just a good player with the ball.”
Anytime Kentucky plays Louisville, tensions are high, but imagine when that rival is a former team. Lipsitz said he will have a close eye on Hunyadi to make sure she doesn’t get too amped up for her former club.
“She’s saying all the right things this week and she plays people on lots of teams that are her friends, she knows people there and she truly respects them greatly,” Lipsitz said. “The question for her will be, will she run herself into the ground the first 15 minutes trying to win the game? The important thing for us to do is just keep her on an even keel the same way we keep everybody on an even keel. I think she’ll have to go through a little self discovery when she has to find that second wind and then she’ll relax and do fine.”
