With seven players on its roster receiving post-season league awards, including a Conference USA Player of the Year, the 2019 Kentucky men’s soccer team will look to follow up last year’s Elite Eight appearance with an even deeper NCAA Tournament run. The Cats begin their journey on Thursday, Nov. 21 as they host Loyola Chicago (11-4-4, 5-2-3 Missouri Valley Conference) at home in the first round. 

The No. 15 Cats went 11-3-3 (4-2-1 C-USA) in the regular reason and qualified for their 14th postseason conference tournament since joining the C-USA in 2005. Heading into the tournament as the No. 4 seed, the Wildcats first rematched and defeated Florida Atlantic 2-0 in the quarterfinals. Kentucky saw FAU in its C-USA home opener back on Sept. 21 and knew what to expect from the Owls heading into the conference tournament. Two late goals from a pair of freshmen in the 89th minute is what sealed the win–Eythor Bjorgolfsson and Jansen Wilson recorded last-minute scores to send the Cats to the semifinals.

After losing to the Marshall Thundering Herd on the road in its second-to-last regular season game, UK faced them 12 days later to secure a spot in the C-USA championship game. However, the outcome wasn’t what the Cats had hoped for. They were defeated 1-0 despite leading the shot count in the match and goalkeeper Enrique Facusse’s efforts, who totaled three saves on the night. The Herd would go on to defeat Charlotte in the championship game 1-0 in two overtimes to claim the C-USA title.

Kentucky will head into the NCAA tournament sporting a No. 21 RPI ranking and a 2-4-3 (4-2-1 C-USA) record, while having the conference’s player of the year in Aimé Mabika on their side. The 6-foot-6 defender leads the Wildcats among all field players in minutes with 1,755 and adds three goals for the team. He also was named Co-Defensive MVP and first-team All-Conference.

Thursday will mark the first-ever meeting between the Cats and Loyola Chicago, which kicks off at 7 p.m. at The Bell in Lexington. The winner of the match will move on to the second round and face No. 8 Indiana on Sunday at noon.