How a team responds to adversity or even just falling short of expectations can be very indicative of their resilience. The closest thing to adversity since a sloppy opening night win was an SEC-opening draw at Georgia after playing three-quarters of the match with a player advantage. Vanderbilt proceeded to trounce Texas A&M 5-0.
The scoring started in the 26th minute when Olivia Stafford put her defender in bail mode by using tight control and feints to back her up. Attackers crashed the goal expecting
a cross. Courtney Jones arrived late for a rolled cross that she hit first time and found the far side netting through a maze of bodies. Stafford was involved in a goal again 6 minutes later when she and Grace Freeman pulled attention wide before Stafford put a ball through to Sydney Watts who re-started the scoring streak she broke against Georgia.
The next 30 minutes would pass without more scoring, but Vanderbilt had good control of the match. Freshman forward Mia Hebert kept showing up in dangerous positions. She showed high soccer IQ with how she slipped into spaces then beat defenders once in possession, even without possessing exceptional pace.
Jones would restart the scoring after a corner kick tussle was called a foul by A&M. A video review upheld the PK decision. The shot was well struck, and the defender dove well but just could not get a hand to the ball with enough force to redirect it.
Hebert again got behind the Aggies back line. She was shoved down just outside the A&M penalty area. The referee deemed it to be Denial of a Goal Scoring Opportunity and showed a red card. The foul itself was not particularly hard and definitely not malicious. It was obvious and done as the only defender remotely in position to prevent Hebert from going 1v1 with the goalkeeper. Jones just missed a hattrick when the ensuing PK was just saved.
Lena Tusche backed up an exquisite first goal a few weeks back at Rice by hammering a shot from outside the box into the top third of the net. A corner was cleared unconvincingly, and the freshman midfielder took one touche before slamming it into the twine for safe keeping.
The final goal came with 10 minutes remaining. Another Commodore Corner Kick was played short by Lawson Hopkins to Tusche who flighted a cross just beyond the back post for Hebert to head. She did the job for her first goal in gold on the all-freshman connection.
The match was, as the stats suggest, mostly comfortable without being totally dominant. Yes, the score line did get wild after A&M had to play a man down for 22 minutes. It was a decent effort for the Aggies on the road at a Top 5 team. The corner tally may be the most telling statistic for how lopsided the attacking chances were.
Tusche is making it harder and harder to keep her off the field, but I cannot figure out who you replace with her. Coach Ambrose has given her more time centrally in midfield, which is where she belongs, after having her play out wide early in the season just as a safe way to get her on the field. The good problem is that Melania Fullerton is also bringing a lot to the team without scoring. Deciding how to get the best out of the skill and finesse of Tusche and the blunt force and energy of Fullerton is up to Coach Ambrose.
Again, Hebert was all around the goal and getting into favorable positions. She just could not quite convert until the header. A couple of the shots off target were high-skill, ambitious efforts. One was a shoulder-high deflected cross that she pulled out of the air with her foot and fired just over the crossbar.
The Commodores have a road weekend coming up that starts tonight in Oxford, Mississippi. The Rebels are 7-0-3 (0-0-2 SEC). After an opening night home win 1-0 over Murray State, the Rebs went on an all-wins road trip through Louisiana (2-1), College of Charleston (1-0), and UAB (2-0). They dropped the home match 3-1 to Memphis before rebounding to wins over Lousiana-Monroe (2-0), South Alabama (1-0), and Belmont (1-0) to finish nonconference play. The SEC has been rough on the Rebels with 2 3-goal losses so far. They lost 4-1 to bitter rivals Mississippi State in Oxford then traveled to Auburn for a 3-0 loss.
Much like previous opponent Texas A&M, goal scoring is Ole Miss’s biggest problem. Unfortunately, they do not even have the dynamic duo that the Aggies have. There are 4 players tied at 2 goals for the team’s leading scorer. One player has a pair of assists to lead in that category. After 10 matches, Ole Miss has only scored 12 times. Conversely, Vanderbilt has 34 goals on the season. Sydney Watts alone has 9 tallies.
The Rebels have been effective on defense. They have held their opponents to just 11 goals and only 85 shot attempts. The warning sign is that 7 goals and 30 shot attempts have happened in their two conference matchups.
Neither Mississippi State nor Auburn are even receiving votes in the United Soccer Coaches’ Poll. They do not appear in TopDrawerSoccer’s rankings either. Vanderbilt has jumped back to #1 according to TDS and at #3 in the Coaches’ poll. The Commodores should be able to take this one handily, but road matches in soccer have a way of being tricky even when they should not be. It happens in the professional game, too.
Tonight’s kickoff from the Ole Miss Soccer Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi, is set for 7 PM Central. The match will be streamed on SEC Network+. You all will have to survive the first half without me as I will be busy with my own soccer coaching duties until then.
