Tide Soccer Plays First SEC Home Matches of Season
10/9/2003 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
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The University of Alabama soccer team returns home this weekend to host SEC action for the first time this year as the Tide welcomes the Kentucky Wildcats and the Vanderbilt Commodores to the Capstone.
Alabama (7-5-0, 0-2-0) is looking for its first conference victory of the season and as far as Head Coach Don Staley is concerned, he could not think of a better time to pick it up than against current SEC frontrunner Kentucky (5-5-1, 3-0-0).
"I can't wait for these games this weekend," said Staley. "We have an ax to grind with Kentucky. They put seven on the board the last time we played each other and to be honest, I don't think they come in here with a whole lot of respect for us and that bothers me. So what better way to earn that respect than by dealing them their first SEC loss of the season?"
Staley is hoping that Homecoming weekend on campus will help give the team the 12th man in the stands as well.
"We went to Florida for their SEC home-opener and they had 3,000 plus fans there," said Staley. "I'm challenging all the returning alumni to come out and make it a rowdy crowd and be the 12th man. I can guarantee them it will be an exciting match with some good hard-hitting tackles."
After taking the first match of the series back in 1994, the Tide has had little success against the Wildcats as Kentucky has run up a 4-2 all-time record against Alabama including a 7-1 victory in Lexington in their last meeting during the 2001 season.
Elizabeth Ramsey leads the Wildcats in goals (5), assists (6) and points (16) while goalie Anne Ogundele is the stopper in goal for UK with a 1.34 GAA.
Offensively, Alabama is led by sophomore Libby Probst's team high 16 points and senior Dawn Nash's 16 points and team high four assists.
Following Bama's match with Kentucky, the Tide will host the Vanderbilt Commodores (5-4-1, 1-2-0) in a 1:00 p.m. Sunday affair.
The Bama-Kentucky match on Friday night is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Free food will be available at the field approximately one hour prior to the start of the match.
