Oct. 20, 2010

UK vs. Ole Miss_Mississippi St. Notes (.pdf)

Lipsitz Pre-Ole Miss Interview

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Fresh off a four-point weekend that saw the University of Kentucky women’s soccer team (8-6-2, 2-4-2) defeat the Southeastern Conference West leaders Alabama and tie Auburn, UK is ready for the challenge of facing Ole Miss Thursday night.

The Wildcats will be looking to add three more points to their season total of eight and get themselves in position to return to the SEC Tournament for the first time since 2007.

With three matches remaining in the regular season, the Wildcats are tied for ninth (Arkansas) in the league with eight points, just three points out of sixth place where three teams (Alabama, Auburn, Vanderbilt) are tied. The top eight teams in the league make the league’s post season tournament.

“Everyone is fighting for points and there’s a group of about eight teams that know they could be in or out and we’re one of them,” Lipsitz said. “The game at Ole Miss will be huge, it’s their senior night. I know that they’ll be ready, they’ll play extremely well.”

UK has dropped the last two meetings to the Rebels including a 4-1 defeat in 2009. However, the Wildcats are 4-2 all time on the road against Ole Miss and are trying to add to their all-time series lead of 9-6-1.

This has been an extremely tight series of late, with the two teams posting a 3-3-1 record over the last seven meetings, including two overtime games. The Cats and the Rebels have also both scored 26 goals against the other in the series that dates back to 1995.

“I really like what I’ve seen out of their attack,” Lipsitz said. “They’re very dynamic and they get a lot of players going forward. They knock the ball around very well and keep having more and more players joining the attack. We’ve got to do a very good job with our team defending; we’ve been working on that. Then we’ve got to be able to play out of that against them also.”

Ole Miss is fresh off battling back from a 3-1 deficit to force a draw with Arkansas on Sunday and is also battling for their post season lives.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET time. Live stats will be available online at UKathletics.com.