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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Fall To Arkansas 2-0 In SEC Soccer Opener
9/26/2008 | Soccer
OXFORD, Miss. On a night when the national spotlight was focused on Oxford and the University of Mississippi campus, a spirited 90-minute battle between Ole Miss and Arkansas ended in a 2-0 Razorback win Friday in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams at the Ole Miss Soccer Stadium, just blocks from the first presidential debate of 2008 being held at the Gertrude C. Ford Center.
It was a tight contest throughout for the Western Division foes, but Arkansas (8-1, 1-0 SEC)was able to capitalize twice on its 11 shots, while Ole Miss (2-5-2, 0-1) was shut out on nine shot attempts. It was the Rebels' first loss to the Razorbacks since 1996 and the first defeat to an SEC West team in the last 16 contests versus division foes.
Kathleen Paulsen scored at the 23:21 mark in the first half to put Arkansas up 1-0 when she took a carom off a Rebel defender and struck the ball to the crossbar, where it bounced down and into the goal past Rebel keeper Megan Vickery.
The score remained 1-0 for nearly the next 50 minutes before reigning SEC Offensive Player of the Week Lindsay Patterson knocked in her fifth score in the last three matches to give the Hogs the 2-0 advantage and help them to their seventh straight win.
"Arkansas is a good team," said Rebel head coach Steve Holeman, whose squad dropped its first conference opener in the last five tries and fell to 7-6-1 all-time in those games. "They possess the ball extremely well and they scored two nice goals. We played with a lot of intensity and put them under lots of pressure. We definitely played well enough to win, but we missed our chances, had a 1 v. 1 with their keeper and hit it wide, and we can't have those missed opportunities if we're going to come out with a victory."
Senior midfielder/forward Jennifer Hance led the Rebel attack with four shots, including one on-goal, while playing 90 minutes in the field. Freshman defender Meredith Snow also played well, as she made several strong runs from the back to put Ole Miss in position for scoring opportunities. The rookie center back also saw time at forward in the contest, using her speed and ball control to produce a pair of shots-on-goal.
Ole Miss will bounce right back with a Sunday home tilt against the nation's ninth-ranked LSU Tigers at 1 p.m. LSU remained undefeated and moved to 7-0 with a 4-1 win over Mississippi State Friday night in Starkville.
"The most important thing for us is to put this loss behind us," Holeman said. "We have 10 more SEC matches, and we can't let one game get to us. We have to turn around and be ready to play a top-10 opponent on our home field."
