New-Look Wildcats Conclude Spring Campaign, Look Ahead to ’26 Fall Season
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Today, the Kentucky Wildcats Men’s Soccer program is set to officially conclude another spring season.
The Wildcats’ offseason spring schedule featured a five-match slate from the end of February to mid-April, including matchups against USL Championship side Lexington SC, Xavier, IU Indianapolis, Indiana and Bellarmine.
Now, they look ahead to the summer months and the upcoming fall slate for the 2026 campaign.
“It’s been an incredibly productive four months,” Head Coach Johan Cedergren said. “We have a really good group of guys. We’ve worked a lot on what it means to be a UK Men’s Soccer player, and the standards we’ve set through the 15 years I’ve been here, and what the non-negotiables are.”
The Wildcats are coming off a season in which they won the eighth Regular Season Conference Title in program history, and the second since joining the Sun Belt Conference in 2022. The Cats were also well represented in the SBC postseason awards, including Cedergren earning the fourth Coach of the Year honor of his career, Sebastian Conlon earning his second career Goalkeeper of the Year award and seven Wildcats earning All-SBC honors.
Ahead of the 2026 fall season, this year’s group will look to returning veterans like midfielders Agustin Lopez and Bertil Alban and defenders Sinan Solmaz and Max Miller, as well as Marshall transfer midfielder Yasha Schaerer, for leadership, consistency and production on both ends of the pitch.
“Looking at leaders in general that maybe weren’t asked to lead as much last season, guys like Bertil, Sinan and Agu who were here in the fall and big pieces of our team, have done a great job of stepping up now,” Cedergren said when asked about the new leadership within the team. “One you also have to add to that list would be Yasha, who has come in and really set the pace in regard to how we compete and how bad he wants to win every day in training.”
Following the end of the 2025 season, Cedergren and his staff hit the transfer portal, bringing in eight new players, with more additions on the way in the coming months, on all four levels of the pitch.
“We addressed some needs we needed to fill,” Cedergren said about the incoming transfer class. “It’s becoming harder to hold on to players for four years. That’s one of the areas we wanted to work on this semester, making sure we develop new leaders and instilling the habits of what it means to be a Kentucky Men’s Soccer player. Instilling that in how we train and how we behave. So far, we have a really good group that have pushed hard and competed.”
On March 13, the Wildcats added assistant coach Sean Lawlor to the 2026 coaching staff. Lawlor came to Lexington after serving the previous three seasons as an assistant coach with the Penn State Nittany Lions from 2023-25. During his first season, Lawlor helped lead the Nittany Lions to a Big Ten Regular Season Title and a conference tournament championship game appearance in 2023.
“I have walked into a high-performance environment that Coach Cedergren and the staff have created,” Lawlor said. “I am fortunate to have joined such a program and look forward to taking on the Sun Belt Conference this fall.”
“Excited to have Sean join our staff this season,” Cedergren said. “He is a tremendous recruiter and brings a lot of quality, high-level experience at the Division I level to our program.”
After earning a conference title and reaching the NCAA Tournament for the 11th time in his 14-year career in Lexington, Cedergren is looking to not only maintain the program’s level of excellence, but to build on it.
“The expectation here is always to be top 15 program,” Cedergren said. “Between CUSA and SBC, we’ve won seven league titles in 14 years. The goal is always, for me, the staff and the group we’ve put together to challenge for league titles and to make runs in the NCAA Tournament. With the group we have committed, we’re expecting to be just as good as we have been prior.”
“The cool thing about working at Kentucky is that you’re supposed to be challenging for titles. You’re supposed to be nationally relevant, and we are very fortunate to have those resources in place.”
In his final remarks, Cedergren offered a thoughtful message to University of Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart prior to his retirement, thanking him for his years of service and the lasting support of the men’s soccer program.
“The last thing I want to say is, I know Mitch (Barnhart) is retiring. From my point of view and having worked with Mitch, the success we’ve enjoyed would not be possible without the support he has provided our program over these past 14 years. We wish him all the best and a huge thank you from the men’s soccer program for what he’s done for us during the time that I’ve been here.”
For the latest on the Kentucky men’s soccer team, follow the Cats on X, Facebook and Instagram, as well as on the web at UKAthletics.com.
