BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team opens Southeastern Conference play on the road Friday as it travels to Lexington, Ky., to take on the Kentucky Wildcats at the UK Soccer Complex at 6:30 p.m.
The Tigers (4-2-1) carry a five-game unbeaten streak into Friday’s match and are looking for their first win against Kentucky (4-0-4) as they are currently 0-8 all-time versus the Wildcats. LSU hopes to improve upon its 2-8-1 mark in conference play and sixth-place finish in the SEC Western Division a year ago.
“Kentucky’s had a great start to their season. They’re unbeaten through eight games, and you can’t do much better than that,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “We expect them to be a great challenge, and this will be a challenging road environment to play in.”
Senior forward Kate Ripple and junior forward Joleen Phillips lead the Tigers and are tied for third in the SEC with four goals each. Ripple has scored a goal in each of the last three matches and has eight points on the season, while Phillips leads the team and is tied for third in the SEC with 10 points.
Kentucky enters the match off of a 1-1 tie with Western Kentucky on Sunday and ranks third in the SEC with 2.62 goals per game while only allowing 0.75 goals per game.
“The team is excited about getting into SEC play,” Lee said. “We know the intensity is about to go up a notch, and we’re looking forward to the challenge of facing two very tough opponents in this first weekend.”
LSU will follow its match against Kentucky with a trip to Nashville, Tenn., to face the 20th-ranked Vanderbilt Commodores at the Vanderbilt Soccer Complex on Sunday at noon.