Oct. 23, 2014
LEXINGTON, Ky. – After a historic weekend at the Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer Complex, which saw the University of Kentucky women’s soccer team collect its first top-five win in program history over the No. 5/4 Florida Gators on Sunday, the Wildcats turn their attention to the Southeastern Conference’s final full weekend of action, as UK travels on the road to face LSU (8pm ET, SECN+) on Friday night, and No. 21/16 Georgia on Sunday (6pm ET, SECN+).
The Wildcats after a 2-0-0 weekend currently sit at 10-5-0 overall on the 2014 season, and are now 5-3-0 in the SEC after three-consecutive wins in conference play, with two of them coming over top-25 opponents. UK currently sits in a tie for fourth on the SEC table, with 15 points accumulated thus far on the season. Texas A&M leads the league, and can secure at least a share of the conference championship with two wins this weekend.
UK faces the LSU Tigers on Friday night at 8 p.m. ET from the LSU Soccer Complex in Baton Rouge, La. The match will be live on the SEC Network+. Kentucky this season is 7-2-0 in night matches (matches that start at 7 p.m. ET or later). The Wildcats have picked up wins over arch rival Louisville, South Carolina, Auburn, Ole Miss and Mississippi State all in night matches.
LSU continues their season under the direction of head coach, Brian Lee, with a 5-10-2 overall record. The Tigers are 1-6-1 in the SEC with its lone SEC win over Mississippi State. The Tigers non-conference wins over Troy, Northwestern St., Nicholls, BYU and a draw against Stephen F. Austin. Jorian Baucom leads the Tigers with a total of 20 points, including eight goals and four assists. Lily Alfred has a tally of four shutouts from the net with a GAA of 2.13 and 67 saves.
Zoe Swift was named the Southeastern Conference’s Offensive Player of the Week, after scoring two game-winning goals this weekend, which propelled Kentucky to a 2-0-0 weekend, collecting six crucial points in the SEC standings, including a 2-0 win over No. 5 Florida, the first top-five win in program history.
Swift scored two goals this weekend, with both of them serving as game-winning goals. The sophomore scored in the 13th minute on Friday night against Ole Miss to open the scoring for the Wildcats. Fellow sophomore Jade Klump played a perfectly-placed and weighted ball from the midfield stripe down the right side to a waiting – and onside- Swift, who collected down the right-hand side 25 yards from goal. Swift then beat her defender 1v1 and finished low and to the far post past a diving Kelly McCormick.
On Sunday, Swift gave the Wildcats the lead just after the half-hour mark as she was slotted in on goal from a through-ball from Michaela Dooley before hammering her fourth goal of the season into the net. Dooley got the ball from the left side and made a run to the corner flag and got endline, beating her defender and serving a ball across the mouth of the goal which was hammered home by Swift, who scored her fourth of the season. The assist went to Dooley, who charted her team-high tying eighth assist of the season, as the sophomore transfer now has 14 points on the season.
After the 2-0-0 weekend with wins over (40) Ole Miss and (6) Florida, the Wildcats currently sit at No. 30 in the NCAA RPI. The Wildcats were No. 59 two weeks ago before its three-match winning streak. However, UK still has matches left with Georgia (28) and the SEC Tournament to pick up quality wins in the national and conference landscape.
For continuing coverage of UK women’s soccer, log on to UKathletics.com.
