The perfect run had to end eventually for Vanderbilt’s formerly #1 soccer team. Thankfully, they are still unbeaten after their first SEC contest. Vanderbilt is still ranked #3 by TopDrawerSoccer and #4 by the United Soccer Coaches Poll. The trip to Athens, Georgia started with the Bulldogs jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute thanks to an aggressive, suffocating press that left Vanderbilt’s normally calm and possession-dominant defense and midfield floundering a bit.
That came to a head on
the goal when a partially cleared cross dropped to Honoka Hamano who absolutely blasted the shot into the lower right corner of the goal. It was a laser beam.
The goal seemed to be a splash of cold water that woke the Commodores up. They became a bit more assertive then were rewarded in the 23rd minute. Olivia Stafford played an early, diagonal ball over the top for Victoria Pugh, who was taken down by the Georgia goalkeeper Jordan Brown. The foul outside the penalty area is called and initially punished with a yellow card before being upgraded to red on review.
Vanderbilt would take a stranglehold on the match but could not fully capitalize until the second half when Stafford skewed a shot attempt off the outside of her right foot. The ball fell almost perfectly for Megan Hinnenkamp who lashed the shot into the net to level the score.
Even with the Commodores spending most of the rest of the match in Georgia’s half, they could not find another goal. Settling for a draw down 1-0 on the road after 15 minutes is not upsetting. Settling for a draw after playing 78 minutes with a man advantage is. I guess that balances out somehow.
The shot difference was even more egregious for just the 2nd half. Vanderbilt had 12 shot attempts to 2 from the home team. Corners were 7 to 2 in the Commodore’s favor in the 2nd frame, too. They possessed the ball and drove play like you would expect from a team of their caliber with the advantage, but they could not piece together the final attack against Georgia’s organized and athletic defensive plan.
The intensity of the match led to a shortened bench. I do think it also helped that Vanderbilt was in possession so often and was not spending a ton of time defending after the sending off. Still, it needed to be cleaner and more incisive. The shot chart shows most of the volume was well off-center of the goal and at or outside the top of the box.
Sydney Watts also saw her 7-match scoring streak end. She had some golden opportunities and just failed to convert. Apparently, everyone can have a bad day.
The next opponent is Texas A&M. The Aggies are 4-4 (0-1 SEC). A&M started their season at Rice and pulled out a 2-1 win before losing 2-1 at Baylor and 3-2 at Texas State. They then reeled off home wins over Sam Houston (5-0) and Air Force (2-1) before suffering a 3-0 home defeat against TCU. The Horned Frogs were then #19 and have stayed steady to #20. The Aggies ended nonconference play with a 4-0 home win over Stephen F. Austin. Kentucky got them off to a rough start to SEC play by handing them a 3-2 loss in Lexington. It is a bit of a weird travel schedule to go to UK last Friday then come to Nashville this Friday with the return trip to College Station in between.
The struggle for Texas A&M has been getting anyone besides Ireland Churchill and Trinity Buchanan scoring. Churchill has 7 goals thus far and Buchanan is right behind her at 6 tallies. The Aggies have only scored 18 total goals. Finley Lacher has 3 of them. Bella Carapazza and Ciara Jade Mitchell are the only ones to hit the back of the net in 2026.
Assists have been much more spread out. There are 18 credited assists for the 18 goals. Lacher and Buchanana lead the way with 3 while Churchill and Brynja Ran Knudsen both have a pair of helpers. The other 8 assists are split among 8 Aggies. It apparently does not matter where the play starts. Everyone knows it ends with Buchanan and Churchill.
TAMU has been very stingy defensively. Those 12 goals allowed through 8 matches is impressive. Freshman goalkeeper Makenna August has been instrumental to those efforts. She has a 1.67 goals against average and a 0.690 save percentage. She has started every match and played all but 21 minutes. Vanderbilt will need to test her.
Tonight’s kickoff is a late one at 8 PM Central. There will be a Vanderbilt camo hat giveaway to the first 400 attendees. Tickets can still be purchased for $10. For those not at The Plex, the match will be streamed on SEC Network+.
