The University of Kentucky women’s soccer team announced its fall schedule on Tuesday afternoon, highlighted by home games with rival Louisville on Sept. 1 and road trips to 2014 national champion Florida State, Wisconsin, Marquette and Florida.
“We are playing some of the best teams in the nation and in our region that we believe will set us up for success down the road to help make us the best version of ourselves this season,” UK head coach Ian Carry said. “We have plenty of attractive home fixtures for the Big Blue Nation to watch at The Bell – and some extremely difficult road games that will demand our full attention to earn three points.”
The Wildcats will play 20 games in 2017, with 11 of the 20 coming at the Wendell & Vickie Bell Soccer Complex in Lexington. Kentucky will play 10 games against teams that participated in the 2016 NCAA Tournament, and 10 Southeastern Conference games with five of those at home and five on the road.
The 2017 campaign will kick-off with back-to-back road games on August 18 and 20 as the Wildcats will travel north to face Wisconsin and Marquette. This will be the second-straight year that UK will open the season away from home, piggybacking off last year’s west-coast road trip to start the season in southern California.
Big Blue Nation can welcome the Wildcats home for the home opener on Thursday, Aug. 24 at 7:30 p.m. ET as Kentucky will host in-state foe Eastern Kentucky. That game will serve as the first of a three-game homestand that will feature EKU, Wyoming and in-state rival Louisville on Friday, Sept. 1 at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Following a Friday night rivalry game, Kentucky will face its toughest test, traveling to Tallahassee, Florida to face the 2014 NCAA National Champions, Florida State on Sunday, Sept. 3. Home matches with Western Illinois and Lipscomb sandwich a road trip to Ohio to round out the pre-conference slate for UK.
SEC play will commence on Sunday, Sept. 17 in Knoxville, Tennessee against the Volunteers at Regal Stadium. The SEC home opener for the Wildcats will be on Thursday, Sept. 21 as UK welcomes in defending SEC champions South Carolina to Lexington.
Senior Day will be on Oct. 22 against Arkansas, the penultimate game of the 2017 regular season, before UK hits the road to Georgia for match day 20.
The 2017 SEC Tournament will again be contested in Orange Beach, Alabama from Oct. 30 – Nov. 5 at the Orange Beach SportsPlex. All games of the tournament will be shown live on the SEC Network, ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.
ESPN will be announcing its broadcast details in the coming months. Fans should be aware that while game dates are set, game times can be flexed for ESPN and the SEC Network.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s soccer team, follow @UKWomensSoccer on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
‑ GO CATS –
For more information contact:
Chris Shoals
