The Kentucky Wildcats women’s soccer team had an up and down weekend. Although they went 1-1, I’ll call the weekend a success. On Friday the Wildcats played a 15th ranked Virginia Tech team and on Sunday faced Wake Forest. Both games were played in Winston Salem. The Wildcats (3-1-0) won 2-1 over Tech but failed to score in a 2-0 loss to Wake.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
On Friday entering halftime, the Wildcats were down a score to Virginia Tech. During the intermission, Coach Lipsitz took the time to talk about team work and not soccer.
“We didn’t talk about soccer too much at halftime. Of the 15-minute halftime, 14 minutes and 30 seconds was about who we were as teammates. In athletics, you’re going to win and you’re going to lose games, but the type of teammate you are and how hard you fight for one another and the way you support one another on and off the field is what it’s really all about for us at Kentucky women’s soccer; that’s what we care about the most.
“I just felt that we weren’t fighting in the first half. I felt like we were getting pushed around, nothing dirty, just physically man handled. I felt like we weren’t giving great effort for one another and if you’re not giving your best effort, you’re not a great teammate. I’m really proud of them, because in the second half, not only did we play incredibly hard and we were amazing teammates, but our bench was so loud that people on the field could not hear me. I’ve never been involved in a game like that. Every player, on the field, off the field was an amazing teammate and did everything they could to help this team in the second half and that’s what it’s all about with us.”
With 2 goals in the second half, the speech seemingly worked. However on Sunday, the Wildcats couldn’t get anything going against Wake Forest in the 2-0 loss. They’ll need to put that behind them as the Wildcats face instate rival Louisville in their next outing where Louisville will have the home field advantage. That match is set for 9-9-10 at 8:00pm and will be aired on the Fox Sports Soccer channel.
