Game Notes vs. UNCG and SEMO (.pdf)
Aug. 30, 2012
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Coming off a win Friday night over EKU, the University of Kentucky women’s soccer team will play host to the Tropical Smoothie Invitational this weekend, welcoming Southeast Missouri, UNC-Greensboro and Louisville to the UK Soccer Complex for a four-game tournament comprising two days of competition.
“I told the team right away to be ready,” UK head coach Jon Lipsitz said. “This is what we want. We want the competition. We knew when we invited Greensboro, coach (Steve) Nugent and his staff here, that it was going to be a great game. We are very excited. We are excited to be good hosts in a great tournament and we are just looking forward to Big Blue Nation being out Friday night and pulling us through.”
The two-day event will take place Friday and Sunday in Lexington with both sessions seeing two games of action. Friday night will include Louisville taking on SEMO in a game that will start at 5:00, followed by UK matching up against UNC Greensboro.
The Sunday session will consist of Louisville vs. UNC-Greensboro at Noon followed by a re-match of the 2011 Tropical Smoothie Invitational championship game from a year ago that pits UK against SEMO at 2:30 p.m. ET.
“SEMO is very similar to last year.” Lipsitz said. “Obviously we will get to see them Friday night which helps a lot and makes a big difference. Really from everything that we have got from film and scouting reports, they are very similar. We have worked a lot this week on finding new combinations and getting other players into attack and trying to find ways to break teams down.”
Kentucky is 2-0 under the tutelage of head coach Jon Lipsitz for the fourth-consecutive season. The Wildcats have scored three goals off of set pieces so far in 2012, including two coming from junior Ashley VanLandingham from distance.
The tournament will operate with the same scoring format as used in international soccer, with the winner receiving three points for a win. In the case of a tie, each team will earn one point, while zero points will be awarded for a loss. After the two games, if there is a tie, the tiebreaking scenario will (in order) be head-to-head, overall goal differential, goals for and goals against.
UK will face UNC-Greensboro for the third time in program history, as each side has earned a win. The Wildcats won the last meeting 2-1 in 1996, while UNC-Greensboro claimed a victory in 1992 over Kentucky. The Spartans are also coming off a 2-0 weekend, which included a dramatic upset of No. 7 Wake Forest.
Set piece goals led to Kentucky’s win in the championship game of the Tropical Smoothie Invitational a year ago, which knotted the all-time series at 1-1 between the Redhawks and Wildcats.
For continuing coverage of UK women’s soccer, log on to UKathletics.com.
