Through two seasons as head coach of the Kentucky’s women’s soccer program, Jon Lipsitz had yet to coach the Wildcats to an overtime victory. The team had had plenty of success in his tenure, but in nine overtime games, UK had fared no better than a tie.Lipsitz, though, refused to shield his team from the streak. In preparation for the 2011 season, the streak of overtime failures was repeatedly addressed. The Wildcats were intent on addressing the weakness.Just four games into the season, they had their chance. Tied with Central Michigan after regulation, Stuart Pope headed in a cross from Kelsey Hunyadi to send UK to a 2-1 victory. The overtime victory had come at long last and was a validation of all the work they had done.”Friday night, the issue was getting over the top,” Lipsitz said. “Once we did that, I think it gave us extra energy and confirmation that the mental strength and togetherness we’ve seen on a daily basis really does exist.”For this year’s team, that togetherness manifests itself in somewhat of a unique way. The Wildcats take care of their work during practice, but once they step on the field, their focus is having fun.”It’s about being more carefree,” Lipsitz said. “It’s about worrying about how hard we play and how much fun we have rather than worrying about mistakes. We talk about all the little details that we have to take care of on the field based upon your position, your roles and things like that, but the reason we spend so much time working on those things is so that when it’s game-time, it’s just fun.”The shift to a more carefree approach served them well not only in the overtime victory, but all season long. UK is off to a spotless 5-0-0 start heading into a showdown at 7:30 p.m. on Friday against Louisville. In such a matchup, the inexperienced team Lipsitz will field would often be a concern, but Lipsitz expects UK’s relative youth to help the team stay loose. The Wildcats have seen how well they play when they’re having fun and they don’t intend to change that even for a big game like the one against Louisville.”Once you get a taste of that, you realize how much better you play when you’re relaxed,” Lipsitz said. “There’s a difference between being calm and being casual. Calm is fantastic for soccer; casual is horrible for soccer. What I keep talking about is whether we can play hard and battle, but yet be calm and relaxed.”Perhaps no Wildcat better illustrates the philosophy of enjoying the game than Hunyadi. The forward was the lone senior to play in last Friday’s overtime victory and has scored 11 points already this season. Her play has been stellar, but her evolution into an encouraging leader has been equally important to a team that relies so heavily on youth.”We have a lot of perfectionists on the team who notice every mistake they make, but a lot of times they don’t notice the good things,” Lipsitz said. “What Kelsey has really worked on is being very positive and just talking a lot. Those things aren’t natural for her, but she’s become better at it.”Hunyadi has been one of those perfectionists in the past. Embracing Lipsitz’s emphasis on having fun on the field has allowed her to become much more comfortable being vocal with her teammates.”I take things a little too seriously and I recognized that was something I needed to change,” Hunyadi said. “I needed to go out there and enjoy it more. That made it a lot easier to be more vocal and to be that kind of leader. The only reason I can that do is the players that we have. We have such a great group of people to be around every day and I think that’s the only reason I’ve been able to do what I have.”Hunyadi knew she was going to be asked to do a great deal for the Cats this season, but she hasn’t batted an eye. She leads the team in goals (four), assists (three), shots (18) and shots on goal (10). “She’s an incredibly special player and I don’t think people got to see that last year because of her injuries,” Lipsitz said. “Kelsey has a unique ability to both set players up and set herself up. She’s very dangerous and we’ve designed an offense where her position is being played differently than at any time in my coaching career.”Hunyadi will once again be called upon to do big things if UK is to win Friday’s rivalry match. Adding to the intrigue is the fact that the senior spent her first two years playing at Louisville before transferring to play for Lipsitz. In spite of all the relationships she has with people on the other side, she refuses to let herself get caught up in that.”I wish I could say it’s a bigger game for me, but I can’t because I think it would almost be selfish,” Hunyadi said. “I don’t see it that way. We’re 5-0 and we have a chance to be 6-0 if we win this game and it’s our home field. The only reason I see it as a bigger game is because it’s a rivalry.”There’s no doubting that the Cardinals will have plenty of motivation. Kentucky won two matches last weekend on the Cardinals’ field while Louisville lost a pair in their own tournament, an event the Wildcats won.”It changes a lot for them because I can see their mentality being ‘they came onto our field and won our tournament and now we need to show them who actually is the better team,'” Hunyadi said. “For us, now we’re actually playing that team. It is our biggest rival in the country and going there winning the tournament is a huge statement for us. Now we have to go in there and back that up at our own field.”Whether last weekend had happened or not, any match against Louisville is a big one for Lipsitz, though he doesn’t expect it to be the Wildcats’ last of the year.”I don’t treat it the same way because I’d be lying,” Lipsitz said. “I’ve never believed that it’s just another game because coaches say that and then the players basically don’t listen. It’s not another game, it’s Louisville, but it’s still 90 minutes on the field and it still comes down to the work we do in that game that dictates our success or our failure. Of course it’s a big game, but we hope it’s the first of many this year.”