Aug. 18, 2011

2011 Women’s Soccer Media Guide

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The UK women’s soccer program kicks off the University of Kentucky Athletics calendar on Friday traveling to Rochester, Mich. to take on the Oakland Grizzlies.

Friday’s match marks just the second meeting on the pitch between Kentucky and Oakland and first since the 2008 season which ended in a 2-2 tie in Lexington.

UK is 9-6-4 in season lid-lifters, including a 4-0 win over Coastal Carolina in last year’s season opener. This year marks the first time since the 2007 season that Kentucky has opened the season on the road.

Kentucky returns its top four scorers from last season and five of its top six from last year’s team that advanced to the SEC Tournament for the first time since the 2007 season. Additionally, the Wildcats return nine starters off last year’s 10-win season.

“Everyone has worked hard the last eight months for these four (upcoming) months,” UK head coach Jon Lipsitz said. “You want to see where you are after the offseason, and the only way you can do that is to go out and play games. We have had great training sessions this preseason and now we have to go out and prove our play against other teams.”

The match represents the beginning of the third year in the Jon Lipsitz Era. Lipsitz enters the season with a 116-50-15 career record after two years at UK (15-17-7) and stops at Charlotte (58-23-4 in four years) and Denison (43-10-4 in three years) prior to coming to Lexington. His .682 winning percentage ranks second among active coaches in the Southeastern Conference.

Lipsitz coached teams have shown vast improvement in his third season. In his third year at Denison University, he led the team to the Elite Eight of the D3 NCAA Tournament. In his third year at Charlotte, he helped lead the 49ers to their third ever NCAA Tournament bid.

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