Kentucky Final Nonconference Tuneup For Soccer

sMOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The Central Michigan soccer team travels to Lexington, Ky. for a nonconference game with Kentucky on Sunday (2 p.m.).

It is CMU's last nonconference game before Mid-American Conference play begins next weekend.

It's also a homecoming of sorts for CMU coach Jeremy Groves and assistant Ian Collins, who have deep ties to UK.

Groves played at Kentucky and earned his bachelor's degree from the school. He helped the Wildcats win a pair of MAC championships in the early 2000s. Kentucky was a member of the league in men's soccer from 1995-2004.

Groves played at Kentucky under Collins and then served as an assistant with the UK women's program in 2006-07. From '07-10 Groves served as an assistant on Collins' staff with the Wildcat men's program. Collins led the Wildcats for 19 seasons, and guided them to seven conference championships, five NCAA Tournament berths, and one Sweet Sixteen appearance

"When you go back home, you want to go home and win," Groves said. "This is a huge opportunity for us. They've lost one game on the season. Towards our RPI, this is going to be huge. (A win) could put us on the map, beating a Power 5 school would be big.

"If we win this game, we may be ranked in the region as well. (This game) has a lot of different meaning for a lot of different reasons. But we're going to Kentucky undefeated (and) we want to go into the conference 3-0-2."

Where They Stand
CMU is 2-0-2 after wins over Indiana State and IUPUI two weeks ago. The Chippewas were idle last weekend.

Chippewa Leaders
Leading CMU in goals is Russia native Alina Miagkova with two. Marle Bringard, Riley Mann, and Devyn Brough all have one goal on the season.

In 400 minutes in goal, CMU senior Zoie Reed has 25 saves, a goals against average of 0.68, and a save percentage of .893.

Scouting
Kentucky is 5-1-2 after a 2-0 win over Eastern Kentucky and a 1-0 loss to Indiana last weekend. They play host to Auburn in their Southeastern Conference opener on Thursday, Sept. 19.

Hannah Richardson leads Kentucky in goals with five, while Jordy Rhodes has four.

In 760 minutes in net, Kentucky's Steph Stull has 21 saves, a goals against average of 0.71, and a save percentage of .778.

Next
CMU goes to Ball State and then to Miami (Ohio) for its MAC opening weekend. The Chippewas will play on Friday, Sept. 27 (5 p.m.) against Ball State, and on Sunday, Sept. 29 (1 p.m.) against the RedHawks. Last fall, Ball State was the runner-up in both the MAC regular-season standings and in the MAC Tournament.

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Players Mentioned

Marle Bringard

Devyn Brough

Riley Mann

Alina Miagkova

Zoie Reed

Central Michigan University Athletics