Mississippi State University soccer finished its regular season with a 1-1 draw Thursday night against the University of Georgia. 
MSU and UGA battled evenly on both offense and defense at the beginning of the first half of the match. Sophomore goalkeeper Mac Titus defended strongly against Georgia’s five shots within the first 17 minutes. After the injury junior goalkeeper Maddy Anderson suffered earlier in the season, Titus has performed well while stepping in for the record-breaking goalie. 
UGA soccer has been a tough conference opponent for MSU over the past 20 years. Georgia has won one more SEC game than MSU — as the past two losses set MSU back in the standings. 
At the end of the first half, the score was knotted up at zero. Immediately in the 46th minute, sophomore Haley McWhirter scored a goal to put MSU on the board. McWhirter’s goal was her seventh on the season, which marks the most goals in a season in her collegiate career.
Shortly after the first goal of the game, Georgia’s Alexis Gutierrez scored in the 55th minute.
MSU soccer continued to push and put up a fight against Georgia, attempting to break the tie in the last 20 minutes. In the end, MSU could not find a way to score. With the draw, UGA soccer secured a first-round bye in the SEC Tournament.
After the draw against UGA, MSU head coach James Armstrong discussed his evaluation of the team’s performance in the last regular season game of the season.
“(I’m) really proud of the effort again tonight; we took a really good Georgia team down to the wire,” Armstrong said. “Obviously, we’re disappointed to not close out the win and get the (SEC Tournament first-round) bye, but we’re excited to go to Pensacola.”
The last regular season game for MSU soccer in Starkville against UGA was senior night for the team. MSU’s senior class of 2022 included Miranda Carrasco, Madison Cotta, Alyssa D’Aloise, Gwen Mummert, Hannah Pimentel, Olivia Simpson, Hannah Telleysh, Andrea Tyrrell and student assistant coach Peyton York.
In the postgame presser, coach Armstrong spoke to the media about the seniors’ effect on the program.
“Tonight was a night of celebration for the seniors that have impacted our program so much,” Armstrong said. “They’ve done an amazing job in progressing this program the way we want it to, and we’re excited to see all the great things that they’re going to do in their future.”
The regular season has concluded for MSU soccer, but the team still controls its own destiny for postseason play. MSU will face Texas A&M University in the first round of the SEC Tournament in Pensacola, Florida. Earlier in the season, MSU beat the Aggies in College Station, Texas by a score of 1-0. The match between MSU and Texas A&M is set for 3:30 p.m. Sunday.