Ngum Suh broke a 1-1 tie just less than seven minutes into the second half and Krystal Werges collected a career-high 13 saves to throttle Mississippi State (5-9-1, 2-2-1 SEC) past Vanderbilt (4-8, 2-4) for the first time in school history with a 2-1 victory Friday night at the Vanderbilt Soccer Stadium. Heather Ammann and Suh both scored goals for the Bulldogs, while Elke D’Hollander and April Berry added an assist apiece, to give the Maroon and White its first series victory over the Commodores in five meetings.
Vanderbilt midfielder Kat Carroll collected eight of Vandy’s 23 total shots to pace the hosts in a losing cause. Werges was near-flawless in goal, yielding just a late first half goal in evening her record up at 5-5-1 on the campaign.
The save total was the most by an SEC goalkeeper this season and the highest recorded tally for an MSU netminder since Sarah Roberts turned in the same amount in a 3-2 overtime loss at Georgia on Oct. 24, 1997.
The victory was crucial for the Bulldogs who vaulted themselves up to the middle of the pack in the race for its second-straight SEC Tournament berth.
“Tonight’s win was much needed for this team,” said Mississippi State head coach Neil McGuire. “We played hard, and executed our gameplan. We were very concerned with the offensive threat of Vanderbilt and had to choose to defend the lessor of two evils. We tried to take away their ability to get in behind our defense and, with that, gave their midfielders a lot of shooting opportunities. “It was was a rough ride as Vanderbilt has two exceptional players in Kat Carroll and Jen Lewis providing their team with many great shots. Coach Hill is someone I respect greatly, and her team is one of the best we have faced this season. Vanderbilt will be a contender in this conference.”
Neither team could muster an advantage early on, trading offensive opportunities back and forth before a set play by the Maroon and White broke the deadlock. A foul by the Commodores’ Kendra Sasa set State up on a direct kick about 40 yards out to which D’Hollander served a ball into the box that put the VU backline into a state of confusion. Ammann collected the loose ball moments later and fired a shot near post to give MSU a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute (17:55).
Vandy created a handful opportunities for itself in the next 15-plus minutes before knotting the score back up in the 34th tick (33:26) on a 20-yard shot that barely escaped the leaping ability of Werges.
State took advantage of an early second half opportunity when a Berry pass found a streaking Suh on the far sideline. After a couple of nifty moves by the sophomore midfielder, Suh completed the play a shot time later, fooling Vandy goalkeeper Esther Thompson, then skipping the ball far post past the charging netminder in the 52nd minute (51:27).
Vanderbilt had its chances to knot the score back up, including a Carroll header in the 71st minute (70:42) that found the crossbar and bounced straight down but did not cross the endline, but could not put a goal in the State nets.