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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Matt Mott Weekly Press Conference
10/11/2021 | Soccer
Ole Miss Head Soccer Coach Recaps South Carolina and Texas A&M, Previews Vanderbilt
Ole Miss Soccer Head Coach Matt Mott met with members of the media on Monday as part of his weekly press conference. Coach Mott recapped this past week's wins over No. 19 South Carolina and at Texas A&M before previewing this week's match against Vanderbilt.
Opening Statement:
"We had maybe one of our best weekends in my time here. A double weekend where we played South Carolina on Thursday night. We were able to beat them 2-1 on two really good goals, a great goal from Mo O'Connor, a great goal from Ramsey Davis. Just really a hard worked match against the No. 19 team in the country. And then turned around to play in College Station. We played in really difficult conditions, there was a breeze going straight down the field from north to south at about 20 mph for the entire match. We talked about it as a team and elected to not have the wind in the first half. We really just wanted to see if we could get one but certainly, we wanted to work really hard to keep them from scoring and then in the second half, knowing we'd have the wind on a very hot Sunday afternoon, would give us a great chance. A long throw by Taylor Radecki that Channing Foster found at her feet gave us the first one. And then, a moment of brilliance from Channing in the 85th minute, a ball from Davis into her and she turned and just blasted it with her right foot to make it 2-0. A great performance from our team."
"We're getting to that point in the year where your resume is important. Right now, we are sitting with the No. 4 RPI in the country but somehow, we're not ranked, so maybe this week, we'll see. But we're certainly happy with how we're performing with a big match coming on Sunday against Vanderbilt here. Just one game this weekend, which is good because we need to get recovered and get ready for a national TV game this Sunday."
On Not Being ranked:
"The players now think it's a conspiracy, but I don't know. I'm in charge of the United Soccer Coaches poll, and I can't answer it. It's tricky. There's a regional ranking that comes out first, and then a national ranking. Hopefully we move up in the regional ranking which will help us in the national poll. There's no other team that I think is ranked in the top 15-20 in the RPI that's not ranked in some of the national polls. But I'd rather have the RPI ranking than the national ranking to be honest."
On Bouncing Back After Arkansas Loss:
"The players have just really bought in to how we're trying to play. They're really tight together. We had a great meeting on Saturday night in College Station on how important these games are and how we're really still battling. We're second in the league right now, one game behind Arkansas in the West, we're one game behind Arkansas in the overall picture. It's not official yet but we're really close to being into The Beach for the conference tournament. We're in a great space for that, trying to get the best seed we can. The team is just really motivated, hungry and we're playing a really good style of soccer right now."
Keep up with all the latest news and information on the Rebels by following Ole Miss Soccer on Twitter at @OleMissSoccer, on Facebook at Facebook.com/OleMissSoccer, and on Instagram at Instagram.com/officialolemisssoccer. Also follow head coach Matt Mott on Twitter at @CoachMattMott.
