The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Tie Mustangs 2-2 In Dallas
8/29/2008 | Soccer
DALLAS, Texas Ole Miss and SMU battled for 110 minutes of grueling soccer, but neither team could secure the golden goal in overtime, as the match ended in a 2-2 tie Friday night at Westcott Field.
A pair of freshmen notched their first collegiate goals for the Rebels (0-1-1), with Abbie Curran putting Ole Miss ahead early and Meredith Snow sending the game into overtime with a goal in the waning seconds of regulation.
"This was a very emotional soccer match with two teams battling hard all night," said Rebel head coach Steve Holeman, whose team lost in overtime in the season opener last Friday. "There were several momentum swings in the game. We went up right before the half and they came back and got the equalizer and went ahead. The difference between this week and last week was that we not only kept playing hard all the way to the end, but we battled even harder and showed a lot of guts for 20 minutes in overtime. We definitely made some progress."
A rookie from Eagle, Idaho, Curran collected the first score of her college career just a minute before halftime. Danielle Johnson played a ball up to Austin Brown on the right flank. Brown served to a streaking Curran in the box, and the 5-foot-1 freshman banged a header first-time into the back of the net.
The start of the second half belonged to SMU (0-1-1), as the Mustangs strung together goals by Kristin Medeiros and Devon Herrman in the 49th and 66th minutes to take a 2-1 advantage.
It looked like Ole Miss might suffer a second straight 2-1 defeat with the clock winding down to the final seconds of regulation, but there was plenty of fight left in these Rebels. With about 20 seconds remaining, Jennifer Hance drilled a free kick into the box and off a Mustang defender, and Snow alertly collected the carom and knocked it home for the equalizing goal.
"For a freshman to step up and get a goal when we needed it, not once but twice, was great to see," Holeman said.
Ole Miss did well to score twice and finish with an 11-7 shots advantage against a stingy SMU defense and a former All-America goalkeeper in Ashley Gunter.
"Credit their defense, especially the keeper," Holeman said. "They had a very compact defense. There was no open space in the midfield and no space behind. (Gunter) played really well and made some big saves in some crucial moments."
One of those saves came a few minutes into the second overtime, when Hance drilled a superb free kick that smashed off the corner of the crossbar and post. The ball bounced down and was knocked back toward the goal by another Rebel only for Gunter to come up with the save.
This marked the second straight overtime match and first tie of the 2008 season. Ole Miss set a school record with five ties in 2006 and tied that mark last year.
"You can look at ties in different ways," Holeman said. "Sometimes you have a good tie, sometimes a bad one. In this case, we were faced with adversity. Not only did we equalize at the end of regulation, but we really took it to them in overtime. We can feel good about this one and move on from here."
The Rebels finish the Texas road trip with a Sunday match at TCU. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m.
