The University of Mississippi Athletics

Ole Miss Soccer Suffers Defeat On Road At Vanderbilt

10/20/2006 | Soccer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. The Ole Miss soccer team (7-6-4, 3-2-4 SEC) finished its five-game road swing on a disappointing note Friday night with a 2-0 loss to Vanderbilt at the Vanderbilt Soccer Complex.

 

The Rebels retained their lead in the Southeastern Conference Western Division, though, by virtue of every West team suffering a defeat to an East team. Ole Miss remains one point ahead of Auburn.

 

“Tonight was a tough loss,” said Ole Miss head coach Steve Holeman. “Vanderbilt is a great team. Unfortunately, we didn’t play well in the first half, but we came out in the second half and played incredible. We played like we should have (in the second half), fighting hard all the way to the end.”

 

Vanderbilt (9-3-5, 5-2-2 SEC) broke a scoreless tie in the 19th minute when Amy Baumann stole the ball from a Rebel defender and struck a shot to the left side of the net from just inside the 18-yard box.

 

Just over two minutes later, Ole Miss nearly capitalized on a play in which Commodore goalkeeper Tyler Griffin came out of net, and the Rebels knocked it around with the Vanderbilt defenders before junior Amy Gill fired a shot just wide the near post.

 

Baumann added a second goal at the 26:57 mark to give Vanderbilt a 2-0 lead. Junior goalkeeper Ann Shelton came several yards out of the goal and blocked a Commodore cross, but the ball caromed off of Shelton’s fist, and Baumann controlled it and struck it from eight yards out.

 

“Amy Baumann did a great job of finishing her opportunities,” Holeman said. “We made two critical mistakes in the first half. She scored two great goals, and that’s a credit to her.”

 

The Commodores held a 2-0 halftime advantage despite the teams equaling each other with five shots each in the period.

 

The second period featured an Ole Miss squad that controlled possession for much of the time and out-shot Vanderbilt 6-5, to take a 11-10 advantage in the game. The second half was also more physical, with 16 total fouls. Vanderbilt had 17 fouls in the match to Ole Miss’ eight.

 

“We’ve created a lot of scoring chances in conference play,” Holeman added, “we just have to do a better job of finishing those opportunities. You can’t win games without scoring goals.”

 

The Rebels got their last quality scoring opportunity with four minutes remaining in the game, when senior defender Elise Karlowicz fed senior forward Brittney Potts in the box. Potts slid it to her right to senior forward Kelly Renie, who fired a low ball with which Griffin made a diving save to preserve the Commodore shutout.

 

The result was the first non-tie in the last four matches in the series between Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.

 

After breaking out with four goals at Alabama, the Rebels have not managed a score in the last three matches.

 

Ole Miss will try to bounce back with a 1 p.m. Sunday match in Oxford against Kentucky for the regular-season home finale. It also marks Senior Day for the Rebels’ five seniors.

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