Pope and Gilliland: a potent duo for UK women’s soccer
Junior Arin Gilliland tries to get through the UTSA defense during the women’s soccer game against the University of Texas San Antonio September 13, 2013 at the UK Soccer Complex in Lexington, Ky.
October 11, 2013
By Kevin Erpenbeck | Sports Writer
The UK women’s soccer team has two new leaders this year, as junior forward Arin Gilliland and junior midfielder Stuart Pope have become a prolific offensive duo.
Pope leads the team in goals with nine, while Gilliland leads the team in assists with eight, which is also third-best in the Southeastern Conference.
Together, the two attackers have teamed up for five goals, with Pope placing the final touch on four of them.
Pope said she and Gilliland have a common goal, which gives the impression that they are always in-sync with each other.
“We both just want to be the player that has an impact in each game,” Pope said. “We don’t plan out how we are going to do it. We just know that our teammates and our coaches look to us to be the impact players of the game when nothing else is falling for us.”
Pope also said that the two took on that responsibility when they became juniors.
“It comes down to our experience and our work ethic during the offseason,” Pope said. “As juniors and leaders of this team, it’s on us to take this program farther than we ever have gone.”
Pope has not always seen on-field success, however. Before the offseason, she said that she and UK head coach Jon Lipsitz did not always see eye-to-eye. She admitted that Lipsitz was not the kind of coach she wanted to be around at the time, while she was not the player that he wanted to coach.
“He pushed me past my limit, and I was rebelling against him” Pope said. “It was a constant battle of what I wanted to listen to, and what I didn’t want to hear. It was always just a constant struggle against us.”
After last season came to end, Pope said that both of them knew the relationship had to improve in order to make the team better.
“We both had to get through it and meet each other’s terms,” Pope said. “I had to come to his terms, and what he wanted out of me as a player, and he had to trust me and that the work that I had done would carry us through this season and beyond.”
Gilliland said she noticed the difference in Pope’s performance after she committed to the team and Lipsitz’s coaching style.
“Everyone on our team knew the underlining potential that Stu always had, but she wasn’t giving it to us,” Gilliland said. “After two years of waiting for that moment to arrive, she finally decided to be that player that she always could be.”
As for Gilliland, a native Lexingtonian, success has been a constant since joining the Cats.
She has been awarded SEC Player of the Week honors this year and last year, has been named First Team All-SEC and to the Soccer America National Team of the Week, and has played for the U23 U.S. Women’s Soccer National Team. She was also chosen to blog about the UK women’s soccer season for ESPNW.com this year.
Gilliland said she does not bask in the spotlight.
“I kind of get embarrassed by all that,” Gilliland said. “I try not to think about any of it. When an opposing coach compliments me, I think, ‘Well, that was nice of them,’ but I don’t always agree with them. I take and appreciate the compliments that someone gives me, but then they go in one ear and out the other.”
For Gilliland and Pope, it is all about being committed to the team and the team’s goals, which is a part of Lipsitz’s three levels of work ethic: “Are you noncompliant, compliant or committed?”
Every player on this season’s team is committed, Gilliland said, which is something she had seen in seasons prior.
“What’s different this year is how ready and prepared our team was from the start,” she said. “Even the players who had to change position, like Stu, came in with all wheels running, because they didn’t care about that. They just wanted to be here and were ready to win.”
The Cats will try to continue their current winning streak to four when they take on the University of Tennessee at home on Friday.
UK is 4-1-0 in the SEC, with a 10-2-1 overall record and a No. 16 national ranking.
Pope said the team is preparing for what she expects to be a mentally and physically tasking SEC rivalry match.
“We know they’re really good,” Pope said. “We have to bring our best soccer on Friday, and be ready to handle the challenges that they bring; challenges that we haven’t faced yet. So we’ll have to be completely sharp come game time.”
