The Mississippi State soccer team improved to 4-3 on the season following a pair of dominating performances in Mobile, Ala. this weekend. Friday night sophomore Danielle Kite scored her first career goal, lifting the Bulldogs 1-0 over South Alabama (2-5). Sunday, MSU opened the floodgates and netted an 8-0 demolition of Nicholls State (2-4). The two wins give MSU the program’s first weekend tournament win since 1995 when the Bulldogs won the South Alabama Invitational in the first season of varsity women’s soccer.
“The first half Friday night was our best 45 minutes of soccer all year,” MSU coach Neil Macdonald said. “We possessed the ball and communicated extremely well.”
State finished the first half with seven shots on goal. In shutting out South Alabama, the Bulldogs recorded their first clean sheet since August 22 against Mississippi Valley State.
Kite’s goal came off a corner kick from Leanna Baldner who found MSU midfielder Kevyn Shelledy. Shelledy then set up Kite’s game winning goal. Kite stayed hungry for goals all night, forcing three saves from USA goalkeeper Kelsie Langford in just 67 minutes of play.
“She really opens up a lot of options,” Shelledy said of Kite.
MSU executed corners well all weekend, racking up five goals as the result of corner kicks. Shelledy scored directly from the corner.
“I was just hoping that the ball would stay in bounds, and it bent right,” Shelledy said.
Macdonald praised Shelledy’s effort, saying she turned in the team’s best performance of the weekend.
Macdonald said the team’s communication was much improved this weekend, as it had been an area of concern.
Again, MSU played Jacobson and Tyler 90 minutes in both games giving a solid, confident pair at center defense.
“We have played together for two years now, and we are clicking. We know what to do and we stay on the same level,” Tyler said of her partnership with Jacobson.
“We have been working on going into games without fear. We have been working hard in practice, and playing with high intensity and high tempo,” Jacobson said.
Sunday, the Bulldogs enjoyed a confidence boosting game with lethal finishing and again ruled possession. Three different Bulldogs scored two goals each as Kevyn Shelledy, Katelyn Graben and Taylor Turnipseed each bagged braces on the day. Graben’s two late goals are her first of the campaign. This was the first time in program history that three players have scored multiple goals.
Macdonald said he was pleased with his strikers.
“With Graben, I think that’s only her third game this season, and Taylor [Turnipseed] has been coming back from injury so it is good to see her back,” Macdonald said.
Graben led the team in scoring in 2007 with six strikes but missed the Bulldog’s opening four games with a leg injury.
Shelledy’s five points are the most for a Bulldog since an overtime win over Memphis in MSU’s SEC West winning campaign in 2001.
Anna Goblirsh assisted on two goals in her first five minutes on the field, tying her with Leanna Baldner and Shelledy for the season lead in assists. State played 24 players, more than any other game of the season.
“A lot more players played. That is important especially for the younger players to go on the field and see what it is like to play for Mississippi State,” Tyler said.
Shelledy said the team is starting to buy into the system of play.
“The attack has a lot more depth this season than before. That means whoever is on the field someone can score,” Shelledy said. “Sunday we played strong the whole time. We got to work on things that we had not this season.”
Following Nicholls State’s 0-7 loss to South Alabama, the Colonials have now conceded 25 in their last three outings while failing to net once. Following a save off Nicholls State striker Caitlyn Donegan in the 18th minute Sunday, MSU goalkeeper Taryn Holland moved into 4th place all time in program history in career saves.
MSU’s Sunday performance recorded the second most goals in program history, falling only behind a 10-0 drubbing of Alabama A&M in 2000.