Vanderbilt has reached the SEC Tournament final for the 6th time in program history. It is the first appearance since 2020, which the Commodores won 3-1 over Arkansas. The 2020 appearance was the first since 1998.
The other finals were 1997, 1994, and 1993, which was the first year of the SEC Women’s Soccer Tournament.
The Commodores defeated Georgia in their semifinal 2-0 behind a pair of Sydney Watts goals. The first goal came in the 16th minute when Olivia Stafford dispossessed a Bulldog defender, drove to the end line, and zipped a cross along the ground to Watts on the back post. The pass slipped through 4 defenders. Watts tapped it home simply to get the Dores on the board.
She nearly scored again 3 minutes later on a through ball from Maci Teater. Watts slipped in behind and even knocked the ball around the onrushing goalkeeper but could not get on balance to keep the tight-angle shot at a gaping net on target.
Georgia nearly leveled the match in the 60th minute when Mary Beth McLaughlin had some troubles in 1v1 defending. Sara Wojdelko came out to close down the attacker, and the angle forced a shot to ring off the upright.
The missed opportunity would be punished as 8 minutes later. Teater picked off a wayward pass from a Georgia defender trying to play the ball into their midfield. She drove at the back line on the dribble then layed a pass of for Watts just inside the box. The striker surprised the goalkeeper by firing the shot between her feet and into the back of the net.
The Commodores dominated in shots and shots on goal with more shots on target than Georgia had shots attempted. They also had a strong 56-44 possession advantage. The telling part is that of Georgia’s time in possession a strong majority (57%) was spent in their own half. Conversely, Vanderbilt’s defensive possession was only 41% of its time on the ball.
The shot attempts were well spread with 8 of the 14 Commodore field players registering an attempt. Watts leading the way with 4 attempts is expected.
Vanderbilt gets their first chance at redemption this season after LSU took down Mississippi State 3-1 in their semifinal. The Bayou Bengals took a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute then a minute later had both a manpower advantage and a doubled lead after an MSU defender was shown a red card for a studs up tackle in the penalty. The PK was easily converted by Ida Hermansdottir.
Three minutes later LSU got their third goal and seemingly put the game to bed in the first half. A 43rd minute MSU goal would give them a little life, but the disadvantaged Bulldogs could only get 2 shots on goal in the second half. Neither of them challenged Audur Scheving in LSU’s goal.
LSU is ranked #25 by the United Soccer Coaches and #23 by Top Drawer Soccer. They are 13-5-3 (5-2-3) on the season and came into the SEC Tournament as the 5th seed. Vanderbilt and LSU met in both teams’ SEC Openers in Nashville. It was a scoreless draw.
The Commodores had not settled their lineup at that point, and used a 4-4-2 with Grace Freeman pushed back to RB and a midfield diamond of Bollig, Jones, Pentz, and Teater. Coach Ambrose has since settled on a 3-5-2, which was the most common formation for most of the season except the LSU match, but has pushed Olivia Stafford from ST to RM and moved Reagan Pentz forward from CAM to ST. This was done to insert Ally Bollig at DM and get Maci Teater forward into the CAM spot from a holding midfield role beside Courtney Jones.
In that contest, Vanderbilt outshot LSU 15 (8 on target) to 9 (3). They had a very slight 51-49 possession edge. Unfortunately, none of that turned into a goal. However, it was a very impressive defensive effort to silence two of the best goalscorers in the SEC, Ava Galligan and Ida Hermansdottir.
Galligan has led the way this season with 10 goals and 4 assists while Hermansdottir has scored 8 times and setup 5 goals. Sariyah Bailey is also a major threat with 7 goals and 7 assists. Mortan Witz has also contributed 5 goals and an assist. This Tigers lineup can certainly take a bit out of any opponent. Holding them scoreless was very impressive.
Defensively, LSU has only allowed 22 goals on the season with opponents averaging 11.8 shots per game and only 4.2 shots on goal per game. Vanderbilt was well ahead of those numbers in the first contest and has only grown stronger since then.
LSU has gone back and forth between both Audur Scheving and Sophine Kevorkian. They have gone in streaks with each of them. I am not sure if it has been injury or just wanting to share the load because neither of them have games with statistics that stand out as worthy of a benching. Scheving has 10 appearances with 9 of them being starts. She has allowed 8 goals for an 0.86 GAA with 28 saves for a 0.778 SV%. Kevorkian has 12 appearances, all starts, and has allowed 14 goals for a 1.20 GAA and made 38 saves for a 0.731 SV%. With Scheving playing all 90 against Mississippi State and Tennessee, I would expect her to be in goal, especially after her strong showing in Nashville. Kevorkian did start the first round match against Auburn.
This afternoon’s match will kickoff at 1:30 PM Central time from the Brosnaham Soccer Complex in Pensacola, Florida. The match will be broadcast and streamed on SEC Network. A win today would almost surely guarantee Vanderbilt the chance to host the first 3 rounds of the NCAA Tournament on campus. A loss means that possibility is still open, and they will surely host at least the first round already.
