Jon Lipsitz isn’t a coach who avoids NCAA Tournament talk with his team. His ultimate goals for Kentucky lie in the postseason and he’s not afraid to let the Wildcats know.A little more than a month ago, he proved it.UK had just lost for the fourth time in six matches, dropping its RPI to 59th. After a defeat at Texas A&M on Oct. 5, Lipsitz told the Cats all about how their postseason lives were on the line.”We handed it out to the team and we said, ‘Look, we need to make it clear: We’re not in the NCAA Tournament,’ ” Lipsitz said. ” ‘And we’re not even on the bubble.’ “That was the beginning of a Tuesday tradition for the UK women’s soccer program. Lipsitz would print sheets with Kentucky’s RPI and upcoming opponents each week and distribute them to his team. In his office, he’s kept the sheets to track the Cats’ progress, all with one thing in mind. “Our goal from that moment on was to get seeded,” Lipsitz said. “It’s something that hasn’t happened.”On Monday, it did.Gathered in the team lounge at the Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer Complex, the Cats watched as they received a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, a program first. UK will play host to SIU Edwardsville (13-6-1, 8-2-0 Ohio Valley Conference) at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, marking the fourth straight season the Cats have hosted in the first round.”I don’t think any of us in this room were surprised that we got seeded,” Stuart Pope said. “We’ve all been in here the last month and we’ve seen the change that’s happened to our team.”That change, in large part, has been inspired by Pope and her fellow senior captain, Arin Gilliland. Charged with leading a team that relies on many young players, Pope and Gilliland have taken it upon themselves to reinforce and amplify their coach’s message.”We’ve only got three seniors and everyone else is underclassmen,” said Gilliland, the Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year. “So we’re a young team. The fact that we had the mental toughness to come back and approach everything and say, ‘We’re going do this. We’re going to make the NCAAs,’ says a lot about who they are at a team and who they’re going to continue to be.”That’s spoken like a player who thinks every day about the legacy her senior class will leave behind. Gilliland, the best player in the history of the program by almost any measure, has been a centerpiece in UK’s ascendance these last four years. In her freshman season, UK returned to the tournament for the first time in 2006. A year later, the Cats won their first-ever NCAA Tournament game. In 2013, Gilliland became the third All-American in school history. Now, the national seed.”We’re doing things every year that haven’t been done before,” Gilliland said. “That’s kind of something we like to do. What have we not done yet that can be done in this program? I think that’s something we’re leaving with the classes below us.”But before the seniors leave the program in the capable hands of their younger teams, there’s work to be done. With two wins UK would reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history, but UK’s only concern at this point is SIU Edwardsville.”We always prepare for success and we’ll be prepare for each match, but we will not even look at film or discuss film on anyone other than our Saturday opponent,” Lipsitz said. “That’s all that matters to us.”UK has won first-round NCAA matches each of the last two seasons, but the Cats enter the tournament differently than they ever have. For starters, they’ll be carrying the label of favorite that comes with that No. 3 seed.”It’s great that we’re seeded, but seeds don’t mean anything in the NCAA,” Pope said. “You have to come out ready like you’re playing the No. 1 seed, like you’re the underdog. Because if you don’t, if you come in expecting to win, someone’s going to catch someone. And we’re not going to let that be us.”The other reason why this NCAA appearance is different has everything to do with Pope’s “we’re-not-going-to-let-that-be-us” confidence.After that loss to Texas A&M, UK reeled off eight straight wins, including two in the Southeastern Conference Tournament to set up a finals rematch with the Aggies in Orange Beach, Ala. The Cats would lose 1-0 on Sunday, but they did so going toe to toe with an A&M team that received a No. 1 seed on Monday.”Before the bus pulled away from Orange Beach, I got on the bus and I said to the team, ‘I am more confident in our ability today than I was before the game,’ ” Lipsitz said. “We lost the game and all congratulations to Texas A&M, but the way we played told me that we’re ready and told me that we’re playing our best soccer at the end of the year and I think that’s a big difference from the past.”It also doesn’t hurt that UK will play in the friendly confines of the Bell Soccer Complex, a beautiful new facility that opened this season.”There’s something different, a different feeling, about being on your home field, something that’s comfortable about that,” Gilliland said. “It lets you really just be in your element and I know everyone’s going to rise up and do what they need to do.”In short, Gilliland couldn’t think of a better place to start her final NCAA Tournament run.”We want to go as far as we can in this NCAA Tournament and I think we’ve got a great setup to do so,” Gilliland said. “We’re going to continue to lead our team the best way we know how.”