A historic college rivalry renewed as No. 4 Kentucky faces No. 2 Indiana

The rivalry between the Wildcats and the Hoosiers might have hit a stumbling block on the basketball court, but Wednesday the border war gets renewed on the soccer pitch as No. 4 Kentucky hosts No. 2 Indiana.

That’s right, No. 4 Kentucky.

A year after missing the NCAA Tournament for only the second time in six seasons under Coach Johan Cedergren, the Cats have gotten off to the best start in program history. UK’s undefeated 8-0-1 record includes a 3-0 win over No. 6 Louisville at home and a scoreless tie at No. 22 Xavier.

Indiana (9-1-0) is an eight-time NCAA champion and is coming off an appearance in the NCAA title game last year.

“It’s fun to have a really good program come in. It’s just like the Louisville game where they’re close enough so they will bring fans, and we’ll hopefully bring lots of fans from the Big Blue Nation to come out,” Cedergren said.

On the basketball court, Kentucky has not played Indiana in a regular season game since 2011, but the soccer Cats went to Bloomington, Ind., last year, and lost 2-0. Despite the defeat, Cedergren thought UK had played as well as it did all season, conceding both goals on set pieces rather than in the run of play.

“We haven’t done well against IU, traditionally, but we also haven’t had this many wins to start a season,” Cedergren said. “I’m excited to get the guys ready.”

The Hoosiers lost a preseason exhibition match to Louisville 1-0 and dropped their only other match of the season at No. 1 Wake Forest.

Junior forward JJ Williams leads UK in scoring with seven goals and two assists in nine games. Sophomore midfielder Kalil ElMedkhar has contributed four goals and three assists while Henry Clay product Aime Mabika has two goals and an assist for the Cats.

Indiana’s roster includes Louisville native Trey Muse, the son former Kentucky soccer standout Dave Muse. The younger Muse played three seasons at Male before getting the opportunity to play for the Seattle Sounders Academy. For the Muses, committing to Indiana was about playing for national titles, Dave Muse told the Courier Journal after his commitment there last year.

“I would have loved to see him at Kentucky but Indiana has a shot to win it all next year,” Dave Muse said in 2017. “It’s the best opportunity for him. He’ll go in and compete from Day 1 and hopefully bring IU their ninth national title. I loved seeing that this weekend, it’s about a ninth star and that’s their focus.”

His father wasn’t wrong. Trey Muse started all 25 games for the Hoosiers, including the NCAA title game, a 1-0 loss to Stanford. He led the nation in shutouts (18, tying the NCAA and school record), goals-against average (.260), save percentage (0.903) and goalie minutes played (2416:18).

Wednesday

No. 2 Indiana at No. 4 Kentucky

When: 7 p.m.

Where: The Bell Soccer Complex

Tickets: $8, adult; $5, seniors; free, 5-under

Live video broadcast: SEC Network Plus (online only)

This story was originally published October 2, 2018 at 1:21 PM.