The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Faces Vanderbilt, Louisville in Cincinnati Soccer Tourney
4/14/2005 | Soccer
April 14, 2005
OXFORD, Miss. - Ole Miss takes its spring soccer season to Cincinnati this weekend for the Blue Chip Showcase Tournament. The Rebels face Vanderbilt On Saturday at 10 a.m. CT and Louisville at 6:30 p.m.
The Commodore exhibition will be held at Xavier University, while the offseason matchup with the Cardinals is staged at the University of Cincinnati.
SEC-rival Vanderbilt finished the fall campaign third in the Eastern Division with a 5-2-4 league mark, 7-7-5 overall, and like Ole Miss, advanced to the SEC Tournament semi-finals. The last three regular-season meetings between the Dores and Rebels have reached double-overtime, including last year's 1-1 tie in Nashville.
Louisville is fresh off its most successful season in 2004, registering a new school record for wins at 12-5-3 and its first conference tournament victory since 1997. UL and Ole Miss have never met in the regular season.
The trip will provide a homecoming for a pair of Rebels. Freshman Amy Gill is a native of Loveland, Ohio, and junior Kelly Renie hails from nearby Carmel, Ind.
"This is an opportunity for us to be part of a great showcase," said Ole Miss head coach Steve Holeman. "We're fortunate to have two competitive matches, including one against an SEC opponent in our offseason. This should be an excellent test for our team to see how far we've come throughout this spring. We also wanted an opportunity to get close to the homes of some of our players."
Ole Miss remains unbeaten this spring with a 3-0-1 record in full-squad competition and coming off a 2-1 win over a squad of past Rebel stars last Saturday in the annual alumni match.
The 2004-05 Ole Miss unit enjoyed a two-goal advantage at halftime. Morgan Reichel flicked in a Brittney Potts pass from 8 yards away 30 minutes into play. Chrissy Strini added another score in the final minute of the opening stanza, connecting from 15 yards out after passing from Renie.
The Rebel alumni narrowed the deficit to one in the 75th minute, after Karen Hall got in behind the defense and scored, one-on-one with the keeper. However the team of former players could get no closer.
"Alumni weekend was a huge success," Holeman said. "It was great to see many of the former players and spend some time with them throughout the weekend. The alumni game had a great balance of intensity and fun. It was another good opportunity for our current team to practice in a full-field environment."
The Rebels' final exhibition action of the spring will be the Ole Miss Club Team Invitational, Apr. 23 in Oxford.
