Arin Gilliland is a talented freshman on the UK women’s soccer team. Upon interviewing for the UK job over two years ago, head coach Jon Lipsitz identified Gilliland, a Lexington native, as a player that the Wildcats had to have to contend on a national level. Lipsitz was able to sign her and, two games into her first season at UK, she has already made a major impact. In Tuesday night’s home opener against Eastern Kentucky, she was the driving force behind a 2-1 comeback win. She drew a foul in the Colonels’ box to earn a penalty kick, which Kelsey Hunyadi converted to tie the score with 10 minutes remaining. Just minutes later, Gilliland calmly received a pass from fellow freshman Stuart Pope and fired a shot past the Eastern Kentucky keeper for the go-ahead goal.As compelling as the story of her play on the field is, her story off the field is even more moving. Gilliland’s mother, Letita, suffers from cancer, which was originally found in her colon but has spread to her liver and stomach. Letita Gilliland’s health is suffering, but she was on hand on Tuesday to see her daughter star in UK’s home opener.Graham Hays from ESPN wrote an article on the way the Gilliland family has responded to the illness and how the relationship between mother and daughter has grown. Below is an excerpt from the piece, but I encourage you to head on over to ESPN and read the whole thing.

“The grace — and I think that’s really the word — with which Letita has handled all of this really washes down over her family,” Lipsitz said. “She’s an amazing woman.”But the extent to which time is something fought for rather than relied upon was clear when Arin enrolled at Kentucky a semester early, something she said was done in large part to ensure her mother saw her play in a Kentucky uniform in a spring exhibition game.They don’t put names on the back of the uniforms at Kentucky, but an exception was made that day in the spring. Gilliland presented her mother with a jersey emblazoned with “Gilliland” on the back. Letita also was there when her daughter played her first official home game on Aug. 23, and hopefully will be there for many more to follow. But there are no guarantees.“It’s really scary,” Gilliland said not long after seeing Letita for the first time since the most recent round of chemotherapy. “I didn’t even recognize her. Her hair, it is way thinner than it’s ever been. She was just really frail looking and her voice is really weak. I don’t know, it’s just moving. And it just sets in, you know?”