Soccer Plays Well But Falls On The Road

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. In what is becoming a trend, Ole Miss dominated possession of the ball and created more scoring chances than its opponent, but the Rebel soccer team dropped another tough road contest 1-0 at Middle Tennessee Friday night.

Blue Raider freshman Shan Jones scored two seconds before halftime, and that was all Middle Tennessee (2-4-2) needed for the win, despite Ole Miss (2-4-2) piling up 19 shots and limiting the home team to just four attempts on the evening.

“Credit Middle Tennessee and No. 10 (Jones),” said Rebel head coach Steve Holeman. “She’s a goal scorer. She had one good chance with two ticks on the clock before halftime, and she buried it.”

The Blue Raiders were on the attack as the first half winded down. Jaimee Cooper fired off a shot that was blocked by a Rebel defender, but the carom went right to Jones, who found the back of the net with a 23-yarder to the upper left corner for her team-leading fifth goal of the season.

Jennifer Hance and Hannah Weatherly each contributed four shots to help the Ole Miss side out-shoot Middle Tennessee by 15. The Rebels also produced six corner kick opportunities without the Blue Raiders getting one.

Ole Miss had one of its best chances just miss in the 67th minute, when junior midfielder Mallory Coleman ripped a shot that bounced off the crossbar. After winning the shots battle 6-2 in the first half, the Rebels were clicking with each other in the second half, connecting passes and racking up a 13-2 shots advantage, but never found the back of the net.

“In the second half we came out and played extremely well, played with a lot of heart and created chance after chance, but unfortunately we only played for 45 minutes,” Holeman said. “We played OK in the first half, but the intensity was missing, and it came back to haunt us. Middle Tennessee did a good job defensively. There was a breakaway one-on-one with the keeper that we missed. We hit the crossbar. It was just too little too late. We have to learn that to win games we have to play for 90 minutes and not 45.”

Blue Raider goalkeeper Kela Casiple made six saves and earned the shutout victory, the first time Ole Miss has been shut out this season. Rebel senior keeper Megan Vickery suffered the loss despite just the one goal in 90 minutes between the posts.

The loss was Ole Miss’ first in four matches all-time versus Middle Tennessee. The Rebels had out-scored the Blue Raiders in three previous three meetings by a combined tally of 17-1. Ole Miss also drops to 6-2 all-time versus Sun Belt Conference opponents.

Southeastern Conference play begins next Friday with a 6 p.m. kickoff against Arkansas, two hours prior to the start of the presidential debate being held just blocks away at the Gertrude Ford Center on campus. Ole Miss will then square off with LSU at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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