The soccer squad started the final weekend of nonconference play by thoroughly and ruthlessly dismantling the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles. The Commodores led 2-0 within 5 minutes of kickoff and never let TTU even imagine getting back into the match. Instead, they put the visitors under siege with attacks often including Vanderbilt’s CBs being 20 yards into Tennessee Tech’s half. Any attempts to break the siege were smothered rapidly. The only relief came from clearances with no attempt to retain
possession.
Allowing your opponent to only have 1 shot attempt and spend less than a minute in possession within 30 yards of your goal is about as dominant as a match can be. Conversely, Vanderbilt spent 21 minutes in possession within that same range of Tennessee Tech’s goal. I continue to be impressed with Vanderbilt’s shots on goal percentage. The 2025 squad put 189 of 407 attempts on target for 46.4% shots on goal. The 2026 squad has thus far put 55 of 98 attempts on frame for 56.1%.
The depth of the attacking options is just flat out fun. Yes, you have the forwards Watts, Pentz, Hinnenkamp, and Pugh all getting involved. Then Fullerton and Tusche behind them at CAM join as threats. Even the holding midfielders like Jones, Ungashick, and Hopkins provide late-arriving danger. The wide midfielders Armenta (who split time at CB), Stafford, Smith, and Perkins definitely get in on the action, often by starting them with excellent work on the flank to create opportunities to either cross or cut inside.
Overall, you can tell that Coach Ambrose’s main focus was saving some legs and minutes in the brutal heat. The most minutes played was 67 and the fewest was 33.
Today will take a much more concerted effort. The Commodores will need a high-level performance to take down the Xavier Musketeers. Today’s visitors come in as the defending Big East champions. They went 16-4-2 (8-1-1 Big East) then were bounced in the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament by Colorado, who were the 3-seed in their bracket. Oddly, the Musketeers have only played 3 matches so far. The Big East plays a more compact conference schedule with fewer 1-match weekends, so their nonconference runs later.
Xavier opened the season by losing at Michigan State 2-0 on August 12th then handled Miami (OH) 3-0 at home on August 16th. They were supposed to play Michigan on August 22nd, but weather made that match unplayable. Their last contest was August 26th when they took down Indiana (3-2) at home.
Unfortunately for Xavier, the offseason saw a lot of departures. Head Coach Dean Ward headed off to Iowa to lead the Hawkeyes, and forward Samantha Erbach headed to Florida State along with a slew of other players running out of eligibility.
Erbach led the Muskateers in both goals (18) and assists (16). Those are truly insane numbers for a sophomore. Her most potent partner in crime Elin Hansson ran out of eligibility after contributing 16 goals and 5 assists. Emme Flick scored 7 times and setup 8 more goals in her final season in Cincinnati, too.
With that said, there are still dangerous players available to new Head Coach Katy Etelman. Etelman had been an assistant at Xavier since 2021 and was promoted to Associate Head Coach for the 2024 season, so she knew the roster and is well situated to continue the success under Ward.
The trio of Regan Dancer, Peyton Kohls, and Presley Pennekamp are the ones who seemed most ready to fill some of the massive holes. Dancer had 6 goals and 10 assists in 2025. Kohls also scored 6 times and had just 2 fewer assists at 8. Pennekamp had a solid 4 goals and 3 assists. In the early season, freshman Kieran Bradley has showed up with 2 goals. Sophomore Brooklyn O’brien has also scored twice, which doubles her output from 2025.
The defense had injury issues and lost the defender who appeared the most in Natalie Bain. They do return Elizabeth Powell who played 1,103 minutes, Brooklyn Miltenberger who played 964 minutes, and midfielder/defender Nastassja Garrett who played 960 minutes. Reinforcements arrived from within in the form of McKinley Berry started all 21 matches in 2024 before missing 2025 due to injury. From transfer portal, Fiona Skwierawski played 1,122 minutes for Kansas in 2025 and Abby Unkraut joins from Georgia. Unkraut did play in 2025 but did play 505 minutes in 2024.
Maria Galley backstopped Xavier in 2025 with all 22 starts and allowed only 1.10 goals against per game and had a 0.699 save%. She graduated and her understudy from 2025 looks like the replacement. Taylor Thomas appeared 6 times in 2025 and has started both matches against B1G opposition while UCF transfer Sami Lipcon got the nod for the Miami (OH) contest. Taylor has a career 1.10 goals against average and 0.737 sv% but has only played 410 minutes in her career with 180 minutes coming in the 2 starts this season.
Xavier is an opponent that is replacing a lot, but they seem to have a very solid foundation. The respectable results against Michigan State and Indiana, who are at least major conference opposition. Michigan State is ranked #4 by United Soccer Coaches and #7 by TopDrawerSoccer, so they are just a tick behind the Commodores, who are #3 and #2, respectively.
Tonight’s kickoff has been pushed back to 6:30 PM. Tickets are still available for $10. The first 300 fans will receive Vanderbilt soccer t-shirts. Fans can also take photos with the SEC championship trophy. The stream will be available on SEC Network+. Again, that is included if you have the SEC Network channel in your TV package. You just need to go to ESPN’s website as I linked or the ESPN app then sign in with your TV provider.
