“I think they’re going to be hard-nosed and going to be hard-working and organized and they’re very good in their system,” said Aces’ head women’s soccer coach Krista McKendree on what she expects to see from WKU. “For us, its going to be can we deal with first and second balls in the air and trap our runners. Those are the big focuses that we have been working on.”
In their regular season home-opener on Sunday evening, the Purple Aces dropped a 2-0 match to Austin Peay. Evansville has seen recent success when coming off a loss. The last two occasions that UE has played a match following a loss, the Aces have earned 2-1 victories.
Evansville and WKU are meeting for the 11th time as the Hilltoppers enter Thursday’s contest with a 7-2-1 advantage over UE all time. The two sides last met a season ago as WKU captured a 4-1 win over the Aces in Bowling Green, Ky.. WKU is unbeaten its last six matchups with UE with Evansville earning its last win on Sept. 7, 2007 in a 3-0 win over the Hilltoppers at McCutchan Stadium.
“One of the biggest things is we can’t underestimate them. Some teams have a rougher start out of the gate as you would say, but it’s just about going in hard, playing our game, and winning 50/50 balls,” said Aces’ senior forward Montana Portenier. “It’s about going in there with a chip on our shoulder knowing how we’ve played against them in the past and that they’re a tough team.”
Thursday’s match features a rally towel giveaway. The giveaway is the first in a set of four rally towels that will be given away. The second rally towel giveaway will be at the Aces’ men’s soccer team’s matchup with Missouri State on September 29, the third on October 26 at Evansville’s volleyball team’s contest against Bradley, and the fourth coming on November 14 for Evansville’s women’s basketball team’s regular season home-opener against SIUE.
Fans can watch live coverage of Thursday’s match on The Valley on ESPN with the game being broadcast on ESPN+. Live stats are also available for the match at GoPurpleAces.com.
