The Kentucky Wildcats had arguably their best season yet, reaching the National Semifinals and hosting the 2013 NCDA National Tournament.
The defending National Runner Up, Kentucky was led by Zac Brown in the 2012-2013 season. They started their season play WKU for the first of many times, winning 4-0. After that they went to the OSU Round Robin, where the Cats went undefeated. They beat MSU (4-0), OSU (3-0), and Kent (3-1). Big Blue Nation then went to the UMD Invite with mostly JV players, beating Maryland (4-2) and Towson (3-1), but dropping an extremely controversial game to JMU (2-0). That would be UK’s sole loss of the regular season though, as they would go on a tear the rest of the way. UK then played at WKU, with the Varsity team winning 4-2 and the JV team winning 4-0. Kentucky hosted their first tournament of the season in November, the UK Invite, where they picked up wins over Miami (5-0), WKU (6-0), and Kent State (4-0). Their final matches of the Fall Semester were at the Miami Invite, which wins over Miami (5-0), Kent State (2-1), and OSU (4-2).
In the second semester, Kentucky played a significantly fewer amount of games. They were off until the DePaul University Invite in March, going 2-0 with wins over DePaul (4-1) and Moody Bible (2-1). They also had the Battle of the Bluegrass against WKU, winning 3-0.
At Nationals 2013, the Wildcats were placed with Bowling Green, Michigan State, and Penn State in Pool B. UK welcomed PSU to the NCDA with a 9-0 win on Friday night, then had a tough battle on Saturday morning with MSU in which they won 4-2. They also beat BGSU 4-0 on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, Kentucky was named the #2 seed, and played #15 Miami in their first game. They were able to win 4-0, moving on to play #10 OSU in what might be the game of the tournament. OSU jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but UK came storming back and forced overtime, and eventually were able to win 3-2. UK then faced GVSU in a battle of titans, two teams that hadn’t played each other all season but were destined for a huge game. Unfortunately for UK, it wasn’t in the cards to go to their second straight title game, as they fell 4-1 to Grand Valley.
Ultimately it was a very good season for UK, as they went 21-2 on the season. They have high hopes for next year, and should be one of the favorites going into the 2013-2014 season.
