Gilliland earns weekly conference honors for UK women’s soccer
September 17, 2013
Staff report
UK women’s soccer junior forward Arin Gilliland contributed two goals and three assists in total as the Cats beat University of Texas San Antonio and West Virginia University over the weekend by a combined score of 5-2. In doing so, Gilliland was awarded the Southeastern Conference Offensive Player of the Week award.
She leads the SEC in total assists for the season with seven. She also leads the SEC in assists per game with a .88 average. Gilliland’s seven assists also gives her the second-most in the NCAA, one behind senior forward Hadley Stuart of Purdue University.
Gilliland was the second player to earn a weekly conference award this year for the Cats. Freshman forward Zoe Swift earned Freshman SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors on Sept. 3.
On Friday, Gilliland earned her assist by passing to junior midfielder Stuart Pope, who scored the match’s only goal in the 62nd minute for the 1-0 win over UTSA.
On Sunday, Gilliland got the action going early for the Cats, as she scored 10 seconds into the match. Gilliland would add on to her goal total for the day as she scored on a penalty kick in the 65th minute, giving the Cats the insurance goal they needed to win the match, 4-2, over WVU. She received her two assists on the day thanks to goals by Swift and Pope, who have six and seven goals on the season, respectively.
The win over WVU was the first top-10 win for UK in the Jon Lipsitz era.
UK will look to push its winning streak to seven games as they travel to Auburn, Ala., to take on the University of Auburn on Friday, Sept. 20. The Tigers are 3-3-1 on the season.
