No. 11 Kentucky, No. 8 Marshall to Battle at the Bell
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Following its first Conference USA victory on the road last weekend, No. 11 Kentucky (9-2-1, 1-1 C-USA) is set to return home for its first ranked matchup of the 2020-21 season against No. 8 Marshall (5-1-1, 2-0 C-USA) on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET, live on ESPN+.
The battle of the two most recent C-USA champions will feature the reigning C-USA Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week pitted against one another in Kentucky forward Eythor Bjorgolfsson and Marshall center back Nathan Dossantos.
The Wildcats enter Thursday coming off a 3-1 win at Florida Atlantic last Saturday. Bjorgolfsson recorded both the game-winning goal and the opening assist in the UK victory, while Clay Holstad and Jansen Wilson bookended the first and final goals, respectively, and Robert Screen and Bailey Rouse each delivered one assist.
In addition to his team-leading third game winner of the season, Bjorgolfsson claimed the outright team lead in total points with 12 and tied the lead in both goals and assists with four apiece.
The Thundering Herd will visit Lexington fresh off a 1-0 overtime win over FIU last Saturday. Dossantos played all 92 minutes in the shutout effort that saw just six total shots attempted by the Panthers.
Marshall swept Kentucky by back-to-back scores of 1-0 over a 12-day span en route to winning both the C-USA regular season title and postseason tournament crown in 2019. The Cats beat the Herd 1-0 in overtime and 2-1 in regulation en route to claiming the C-USA double in 2018.
Thursday will all but certainly mark the lone meeting between the sides this season, as C-USA will send its regular-season champion to an abbreviated 2021 NCAA Championship field rather than sponsor a postseason tournament.
Admission is free to all spring 2021 soccer matches. To purchase a fan cutout of a person or pet, visit UKAthletics.com/FanCutouts. For the latest on the Kentucky men’s soccer team, follow @UKMensSoccer on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as on the web at UKAthletics.com.
