Ole Miss Soccer Hosts Kentucky to Open Conference Play

Ole Miss soccer plays host to No. 18 Kentucky Friday night at the Ole Miss Soccer stadium. Photo by Maggie Mitchell

The Ole Miss soccer team returns to action this weekend on the pitch as they welcome two teams from the Bluegrass state. Ole Miss will play host to No. 18 Kentucky tonight and Louisville Sunday to close a seven-game home stand.

Under coach Matt Mott, the Rebels are starting out undefeated through the first six games of the season for the fifth time in program history and second straight season. Ole Miss is 4-0-1 with freshman CeCe Kizer as the reigning SEC Freshman of the Week.

Ole Miss remained unbeaten in 2015, improving to 4-0-2 on the season behind the scoring of Kizer. The Overland Park, Kansas native continued the impressive start to her collegiate career by scoring two clutch goals this past weekend. She found the back of the net in the 89th minute to force overtime versus No. 19 UCF, Sept. 4.

Two days later, her golden goal in the 96th minute gave the Rebels a 1-0 overtime victory over Little Rock.

Kizer became the first Rebel to earn SEC Freshman of the Week honors since teammate Jessica Hiskey on Oct. 8, 2012. She was also the first offensive player to collect a weekly accolade from the conference since Rafaelle Souza in 2013.

No.18 Kentucky comes into Oxford with a 5-0-1 record on the season. The Wildcats have been strong all season on the pitch with players drawing top soccer accolades as one of the team members, Katy Keen, was named SEC Co-Offensive Player of the Week, the league office announced on Tuesday.

Keen scored the game-winning goal in the “Battle of the Bluegrass” over rival Louisville for her first-career goal.

Though Keen’s performance at midfielder has been outstanding, UK brings back a team that has seen great success over the last four seasons. For the first time in program history, UK has made four-straight NCAA Tournaments. The Wildcats set a program record for the best season in program history in 2014 with an appearance in the Sweet 16, going 16-7-1.

Head coach Jon Lipsitz is back for his seventh season with UK. The last time Ole Miss and Kentucky met was in 2014 in Lexington, where the Wildcats emerged with a 3-0 win.

In the all-time series the Rebels and Wildcats are knotted up at 10-10-1 against one another. The last meeting, Kentucky shutout Ole Miss by a score of 3-0.

Fans can watch all the action of this match on SEC Network starting at 6 p.m. tonight.

On Sunday afternoon, the Rebels host Louisville at 12 p.m.

Adam Brown is the sports editor for HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at adam.brown@hottytoddy.com.