# UK Soccer Kicks Off New Season With Fan Day Doubleheader **Published:** 2026-08-07T19:23:19.000Z **Source:** [UK Athletics](https://ukathletics.com/news/2026/08/07/kentucky-mens-and-womens-soccer-set-for-fan-day-preseason-openers-on-saturday/) **AI-generated:** yes (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001) **Canonical:** https://feeds.lexingtonky.news/article/uk-soccer-kicks-off-new-season-with-fan-day-doubleheader LEXINGTON, Ky. — The University of Kentucky men's and women's soccer programs will open their 2026-27 athletic calendar Saturday with an exhibition doubleheader at the Bell Soccer Complex, featuring both teams' annual Fan Day promotion. The women's team will host local [Lexington Sporting Club](https://www.lexsporting.com) at 5 p.m., with [both teams participating in a post-match autograph session](https://ukathletics.com/news/2026/08/07/kentucky-mens-and-womens-soccer-set-for-fan-day-preseason-openers-on-saturday/). Lexington Sporting Club, [a USL Championship side based locally](https://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/1315914), will display their [Gainbridge Super League championship trophy](https://ukathletics.com/news/2026/08/07/kentucky-mens-and-womens-soccer-set-for-fan-day-preseason-openers-on-saturday/) for fans. Following the women's match, the men's team will face Northern Kentucky in a preseason exhibition at 7:30 p.m., concluding with an autograph and photo opportunity with Kentucky players. After their lone preseason match Saturday, the women open their regular season Wednesday, Aug. 12 against Detroit Mercy at 7:30 p.m., before hosting Kent State on Aug. 16 at 1 p.m. for Junior Wildcat Club Day and Youth Team Day. The men's squad will face two additional exhibition matches before their regular season opener on Aug. 20 against Western Michigan, with a preseason contest against UAB on Aug. 14. [Admission to all 2026 Kentucky Soccer regular season home matches will be free to the public.](https://ukathletics.com/news/2026/08/07/kentucky-mens-and-womens-soccer-set-for-fan-day-preseason-openers-on-saturday/) ## Sources - [UK Athletics](https://ukathletics.com/news/2026/08/07/kentucky-mens-and-womens-soccer-set-for-fan-day-preseason-openers-on-saturday/) - [Lexington Sporting Club joins USL Championship](https://www.uslsoccer.com/news_article/show/1315914) - [Lexington Sporting Club official website](https://www.lexsporting.com) --- This article was generated by AI (claude-haiku-4-5-20251001) based on source material from UK Athletics, enriched with 2 web searches. The original source is available at https://ukathletics.com/news/2026/08/07/kentucky-mens-and-womens-soccer-set-for-fan-day-preseason-openers-on-saturday/.