Kentucky soccer plays on in NCAA Tournament as senior scores twice in his return home

Kentucky men’s soccer had to sweat out a stay on the bubble before earning an at-large bid to this year’s NCAA Tournament.

But now that they’re in the fight, these Wildcats look ready to make a run.

UK began the 2023 national postseason Thursday night with a 2-0 win at Xavier, setting up a Sunday evening match at No. 2 overall seed Notre Dame in the round of 32.

Senior Ben Damge scored in each half to power UK to an impressive win over a Xavier team that hadn’t lost since Sept. 23.

Damge’s goals — a right-footed strike that followed a UK set piece in the 26th minute and another right-footed shot in the 68th minute — were his third and fourth goals of the season. Damge has now scored three times over UK’s last three matches.

Damge is from Mason, Ohio, which is located about 20 miles north of Cincinnati. His high school, William Mason High School, is just a 25-minute drive from Xavier’s Corcoran Field, where Thursday’s match took place.

These storybook circumstances aside, simply scoring against the Musketeers was an impressive accomplishment for Damge and the Wildcats: Entering Thursday’s match, Xavier hadn’t allowed a goal in 463 minutes of play.

Sophomore Kentucky goalkeeper Casper Mols had to make only two saves in the win, giving him his seventh shutout in 17 matches this season.

Kentucky has now won a match in each of the last six NCAA Tournaments.

The victory, which boosts Kentucky’s overall record to 8-7-4 (W-L-D) this season, is also the fifth victory in the last six matches for the Wildcats.

UK head coach Johan Cedergren’s team was ranked as the No. 3 team in the nation in the United Soccer Coaches preseason poll, but suffered several early-season losses and also endured an eight-match winless run.

But Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament résumé was built with impressive late-season wins over Marshall (the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament) and West Virginia (the No. 5 overall seed).

Now, the Wildcats will get a shot at Notre Dame, the tournament’s No. 2 overall seed.

The Fighting Irish (who had a first-round bye) are 11-2-4, but lost in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament to Louisville.

Notre Dame is led in scoring by juniors Matthew Roou and Eno Nto, who each have 10 goals this season. Senior goalkeeper Bryan Dowd has eight shutouts in 16 matches in net for Notre Dame.

Kentucky and Notre Dame will contest their round-of-32 match at 5 p.m. Sunday at Notre Dame’s Alumni Stadium.

The winner between the Wildcats and Fighting Irish will play the winner of Duke (the No. 15 seed) and Western Michigan in the Sweet 16.

The aforementioned Louisville Cardinals are also in the round of 32 after defeating Dayton, 4-3, in a topsy-turvy opening-round match in the Derby City, also on Thursday night. The victory marked the Cardinals’ first win in the NCAA Tournament since 2019.

U of L will travel to play West Virginia, the No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, in a round-of-32 match at 2 p.m. Sunday.

This means both Louisville and Kentucky still have a chance to contest for the NCAA Division I men’s soccer championship right here in the commonwealth.

This year’s College Cup — which consists of both national semifinals and the national title match — will be played at Lynn Family Stadium in Louisville, the home of USL Championship team Louisville City and National Women’s Soccer League team Racing Louisville.

The semifinals will be played Dec. 8 and the finals will be contested Dec. 11.