Oct. 1, 2014
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky women’s soccer team returns to action on Thursday night in Columbia, Mo., as the Wildcats travel to face the Missouri Tigers before making the trek to College Station, Texas, to face the No. 9 Texas A&M Aggies at Ellis Field on Sunday to cap off the third weekend of Southeastern Conference action.
Thursday night’s match will be televised live on the SEC Network with Glenn Davis and former US Women’s National Team member Cat Whitehill on the call beginning at 7 p.m. ET, with Sunday’s match slated for a Noon ET kick-off on ESPNU with the same broadcast team.
Kentucky shutout the Mississippi State Bulldogs 3-0 on Friday night at the Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer Complex before recording a 2-1 win over Auburn on Sunday to close out the weekend. Sophomore Zoe Swift had the game-winning goal for the Wildcats in the 67th minute off of a corner kick on Sunday to seal the match for UK and put the six points in the bag.
Arin Gilliland in the SEC is 1st in shots (56), 1st in shots per game (5.60), 3rd in points (18), 3rd in points per game (1.80), 2nd in assists (8) 2nd in assists per game (0.80), 9th in goals (5) and T-6th in goals per game (0.50). In national stats released this week, Arin Gilliland is 8th in assists per game, 26th in points per game, 8th in total assists, and 28th in total points in the country.
Missouri enters the weekend at 7-2-2 overall and 2-1-0 in the SEC under the direction of 22nd-year head coach Bryan Blitz. The Tigers last weekend collected one of their biggest wins of the season, knocking off No. 14 South Carolina 1-0 in Columbia, S.C. Before its loss to Florida on Sunday afternoon, MU had won seven of its last eight matches, and picked up a result in eight of its last nine contests. The Tigers have not lost at home yet this season, with the only team leaving Columbia with a result being Northwestern, who played MU to a 0-0 draw. Taylor Grant leads the charge for the Tigers, with a team-high six goals and one assist for 13 points on the season. McKenzie Sauerwein is the only Missouri keeper that has seen time this season, and has a 1.12 GAA with 34 saves this season.
Texas A&M enters the weekend at 9-1-1 overall on the season, and one of only two remaining teams that are perfect in the SEC. Currently No. 4 in the NCAA’s latest RPI, the Aggies are a perfect 7-0-0 this season at Ellis Field. The lone team to solve Texas A&M thus far is Arizona State, who claimed a 2-1 win over TAMU on Sept. 7 to hand Texas A&M its only loss of the season. Under the direction of 22nd-year head coach G Guerrieri, TAMU is led by Shea Groom who leads the SEC with 11 goals this season, and has two assists to go along with it. Groom has 36 shots on the season and 15 of them are on target. TAMU’s goalkeepers have allowed 11 goals this season, and have a team GAA of 0.98.
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