July 16, 2013
LEXINGTON, Ky. –
Arin Gilliland, Kayla King and Ashley VanLandingham were named captains for the 2013 University of Kentucky women’s soccer team, it was announced by head coach Jon Lipsitz and his staff on Tuesday.
“We take a lot of pride in determining our captains, and it is something we don’t take lightly,” Lipsitz said. “We ask a lot out of our captains on and off the field, and they are the best of the best. All three of the young women that our staff selected display the best attributes of our program and we will be relying on them to lead up to our goals for the 2013 season. I can trust all three of them to give us a pulse on the team and help us to become the best team we can become.”
Gilliland enters the 2013 season as the top-returning goal scorer from 2012, where she accumulated 21 points off of seven goals and seven assists. For her monumental efforts on the field, Gilliland was named a Third-team All-American and First-Team All-Southeastern Conference in 2012.
King, a senior from Louisville, Ky., finished the 2012 season with a 1.02 goals against average, including back-to-back shutouts against Tennessee and Georgia, which earned her SEC Defensive Player of the Week and CollegeSoccerMadness.com National Defensive Player of the Week honors that week. King posted a clean sheet in six of her 15 starts, including the Wildcats’ first-ever NCAA Tournament win over UT-Martin in Lexington.
VanLandingham enters the 2013 season as a captain, even after suffering a season-ending ACL injury in the spring season. Although VanLandingham will not play in 2013, she will still be a captain and serve as a key contributor in all the team’s functions and meetings. The senior, who hails from Ashville, N.C., has played in every game since arriving in Lexington three years ago on the back line. In 2012, VanLandingham scored two goals in the first two games of the season off set pieces.
The players will report to Lexington for the opening day of the preseason on Tuesday, Aug. 6. The Wildcats open the 2013 season in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Friday, Aug. 23, at 6:30 p.m. ET at Wake Forest.
For continuing coverage of UK women’s soccer, log on to UKathletics.com.
