UE Men’s Soccer on the Road at UK on Wednesday

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Senior Mark Anthony Gonzalez is one goal away from 25 in his UE career

 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Evansville men’s soccer team (2-7) travels to play the University of Kentucky (6-2-1) on Wednesday, Oct. 7. The match will be held at Wendell and Vickie Bell Soccer Complex and begin at 6:00 p.m. CDT.

 

HOW TO FOLLOW ALONG:

LIVE STATS – STAT BROADCAST http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statmonitr.php?gid=uk

 

VIDEO (SEC+ Network) - http://es.pn/1LiSHxX

 

WHAT TO KNOW

  • The Purple Aces are in the middle of four road contests in a span of five matches
  • UE is looking to end a four game losing streak
  • Senior forward Mark Anthony Gonzalez is one goal shy of his 25thcareer goal
  • With a win, UE will even up the all-time series with UK at 6-6
  • UE returns home on Saturday, Oct. 10 to host Bradley in Missouri Valley Conference action

 

THE OPPONENT:

Kentucky began the season with two consecutive wins before losing to #23 Louisville, tying Memphis and falling to East Tennessee State University. Since then, the Wildcats have won all four of their last matches including a 1-0 overtime win at #21 New Mexico last week.

 

HISTORY

UK leads the all-time series 6-5 against Evansville. UE won the last meeting in Lexington 2-1 (Oct. 8, 2013), and has been victorious two of the last three meetings at Kentucky.

 

Last 5 meetings:

Date Location UE Opponent Result
Sept. 26, 2010 Evansville, Ind. 1 2 L (OT)
Sept. 23, 2011 Lexington, Ky. 2 3 L
Sept. 22, 2012 Evansville, Ind. 0 2 L
Oct. 8, 2013 Lexington, Ky. 2 1 W
Oct. 15, 2014 Evansville, Ind. 1 5 L

 

LAST MEETING

Evansville was defeated 5-1 by Kentucky at home last season. Dylan Terry scored the lone goal for UE in the match.

 

LAST ROAD MEETING

The Aces won 2-1 in Lexington back in 2013. Evansville went up early on a ninth minute goal from Landon Souder and extended the advantage with a Nate Opperman 22nd minute goal. Evansville withstood a late surge by Kentucky to prevail for the one goal road win.

 

LAST TIME OUT

The Purple Aces were defeated 1-0 on the road at Loyola (Oct. 3). Freshman goalkeeper Greg Niven, who entered the contest with six career saves, recorded a career-best seven saves in the match. Opperman provided the lone shot on goal for UE.

 

LEADING OFF

Gonzalez has a team-high four goals, and nine points this season. Nine different Aces have combined for the 12 assists this year. Gonzalez and cGrath lead UE in shots (21). Sophomore midfielder/defender Ian McGrath also has a team-best nine shots on goal. Sophomore goalkeeper Matthew Keller has the most saves on the Aces (31) but Niven has the lowest GAA (2.02).

 

ONE SHY OF A MILESTONE

Gonzalez has 24 goals at UE. His next goal will tie Andrew Norton (1983-86) for 11th most in program history. With two goals, Gonzalez will be in ninth place with Rune Bjoro (1980-83) and Mike Luttrull (2007-10).

 

WHAT AN HONOR

UE men’s soccer player (1985-’87) Mick Lyon was announced as a 2016 Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Famer in August. In a homecoming on field ceremony, the press boxes at Arad McCutchan Stadium were named in honor of Lyon and longtime men’s soccer coach Fred Schmalz. The 1985 Final Four team will also be inducted into the UE Hall of Fame in 2016.

 

IN THE CLASSROOM

UE men’s soccer received an NSCAA College Team Academic Award (Sept. 23) for their 3.14 GPA in the 2014-15 academic year. This is their fourth straight year receiving the honor and ninth overall.

 

IAN ON NBC

For the second time this season, a goal from McGrath has been featured on NBC Sports. His 22 yard game-winning blast vs. Belmont (Sept. 6) appeared on the NBC Sports Platforms this past week. McGrath’s 35 yard strike against Mercer (Aug. 20) also appeared on NBC Sports during the exhibition season.

 

NUMBER ONE

The Aces have a new head coach this season, Marshall Ray, who claimed his first win as UE men’s soccer coach in the team’s 2-1 win over Belmont (Sept. 6). A former player (1995-’99) at Evansville, Ray graduated from UE in 2000 and has served on the staff for nine years with the last six as Associate Head Coach.

 

POSITIVE PRESEASON

The UE men’s soccer team finished the preseason 2-1-0 including victories over Bellarmine and Mercer. McGrath and freshman forward Mikey Matic each tallied two goals each.

 

UP FOR THE CHALLENGE

Evansville’s schedule features three NCAA Tournament teams from last year (Indiana, Kentucky, St. Louis). The Aces will take on two teams that finished in the final RPI top 25 last season (Indiana 16, St. Louis 22) and seven in the top 100 (Bowling Green 64, Butler 68, Missouri St. 76, Mercer 86, and Lipscomb 97).

 

PROMO SCHEDULE

Indiana Youth Soccer Night is Oct. 24 and Senior Night will take place Oct. 10.

 

JOIN UEFC

New this season, UEFC is the membership supporters group for the men’s soccer team. UEFC has five tiers with each offering different incentives. To learn more on UEFC and how you can join, fans are encouraged to visit GoPurpleAces.com and click on the Men’s Soccer Page.

 

INFO: For all of the latest information on University of Evansville athletics, log on to the sport page on GoPurpleAces.comor follow the program on Twitter via @UEAthletics.

 

DONATE: For information on giving to UE Athletics or its individual athletics programs, visit the DONATE tab on the top of GoPurpleAces.com.

 

TICKETS: To purchase tickets for University of Evansville athletics events, log on to GoPurpleAces.com and click on the TICKETS tab on top of the page.

 

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