This weekend the Mississippi State women’s soccer team takes its first SEC road trip as the Bulldogs (5-6, 0-2 SEC) play at Alabama (6-3-1, 1-1 SEC) tonight and at Auburn (5-4-2, 1-0-1 SEC) on Sunday. Both Alabama and Auburn faced away matches to Kentucky and Vanderbilt last weekend. MSU has already picked up two wins in the state of Alabama in dominant fashion this season, defeating South Alabama and Nicholls State.
Senior midfielder Kevyn Shelledy has big expectations for this weekend.
“The big thing we need to focus on is that we need to come out [of this weekend] with wins,” Shelledy said. “Even though we lost on Sunday, we need to take that and transfer it to this weekend and be able to finish in the final third, put points on the board.”
Last Sunday, the Bulldogs outplayed the current SEC West leader Arkansas, but fell 1-0.
MSU goalkeeper Taryn Holland said she thinks the team is prepared for the weekend.
“I believe Sunday we had one mistake that just ruined the game for us,” Holland said. “In all we dominated when it came to passing, and I think if we take that and we take what the coaches are teaching us this week we can do really well versus Alabama and Auburn,” Holland said.
Alabama split a couple of 2-0 decisions in a loss to Kentucky and a victory over Vanderbilt last weekend. The Vanderbilt win came off a shutout by Alabama goalkeeper Kara Gudmen which saw her extend a 414-minute scoreless streak despite 39 Vanderbilt attempts on goal. Kentucky ended that streak on a penalty in the first half.
The Kentucky loss is Alabama’s first this season against a team not ranked in the top 20, previously only losing a 3-1 decision to Cal State Fullerton and a 7-1 embarassment at defending national champion Southern California.
Alabama is typically a team that defends first and is patient selecting its shots against good opposition, already being outshot in 5 games this season.
“We have done better against Alabama [than Auburn],” Holland said. “I think it is just because Alabama has been a rival for us, and we just come out as hard as we can.”
Sunday MSU travels to unfriendly confines at Auburn where the Tigers have gone 11-2 over the last two seasons. MSU has never won at Auburn and has not scored anywhere against the Tigers since a 2-1 overtime win in Starkville in 2001.
The senior class’s lack of success against Auburn has rallied the team to be focused this weekend.
“Last year it was the best that we have played versus Auburn. They scored in the last two minutes, so I think we have confidence that we can compete and we can come out with wins. It is just a matter of us doing it,” Shelledy said.
Holland has called for the team to turn around the recent results against Auburn.
“Auburn has always been a really strong team and you can’t look past them,” Holland said.
Auburn comes into the weekend undefeated in its last 4 games outscoring its opponents 7-2 in that stretch. Auburn currently is ranked No. 10 in the Southeastern region in the NSCAA coaches poll.
The Tigers also sport reigning SEC offensive player of the week Rebecca Howell. Statistically Auburn’s most productive player, Howell leads the Tigers in points (12), assists (6), goals (3) and shots (30). Against Vanderbilt last weekend, Howell led Auburn to victory, picking up her third goal and sixth assist on the year.
Auburn’s opening conference weekend success against Kentucky follows the up and down season the Tigers have had this year. For the first time since the opening week of the season, Auburn sits above .500.
Freshman midfield talent Katy Frierson scored just over 70 seconds into the Vanderbilt game, a mark that stands as the fastest goal of the season for an SEC team.
Holland looks for the success this weekend to have started Tuesday in practice.
“I think our attitudes are a lot different. We lost a game that we shouldn’t have lost against Arkansas,” Holland said. “I think we realized ‘yeah, we can beat these teams’ we just have to start from the first day of practice and lead it all up to the weekend.”