Despite total domination, Southwest Missouri State (4-4) took advantage of late scoring opportunities, as well as a bit of hard luck that befell on visiting Mississippi State (3-6), to move past the Bulldogs, 2-1, Sunday afternoon at the Cooper Sports Complex in Springfield, Mo. Amy Van Zandt fired off eight shots, six of which were on goal, and
converted on a second half score in a losing effort for the Maroon and
White. Julie Yank converted a penalty kick and provided the gamewinning assist for Southwest Missouri State. Elke D’Hollander had two shots on goal in her first action for Mississippi State since the 2000 season finale.
Mississippi State completed the contest with a 27-9 shot advantage,
including an 11-1 drubbing in the first half, but fell on the strength of an opportunistic Bear offense down the stretch. The Bulldogs finished the game with a 14-4 advantage in shots on goal as well.
“It is not often we will completely dominate a match in the way we did and lose,” said Mississippi State head coach Neil McGuire. “Our players played as well as I have seen them play in a very long time, and yet we came out second. Our effort was magnificent today. Last week, I talked about the ball not rolling our way, and today it happened again. Our team is committed to not waiting for our luck to change; we are going to embrace the challenge of changing it ourselves.”
Mississippi State came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, forcing the Bears on the defensive immediately due to four quality shots on goal in the opening seven and a half minutes of play. Southwest Missouri got off its first and only shot of the first period just more than 17 minutes in when Lisa Martel connected on a diving header that found the right side of the crossbar. State’s domination showed through even brighter in the remainder of the stanza, however, as the Bulldogs countered with heavy arsenal from the feet of Van Zandt and cohort Jessi Moore.
The Bulldogs found themselves on their heels in the first five minutes of the second half, but quickly regained their composure to force the Bears into a dark corner once again. After allowing SMS to have four out of the first five shots of the second stanza, MSU put together a run of 15 shots (nine on goal) of their own. Van Zandt’s breakaway goal in the 80th minute (79:22) broke the deadlock and appeared to put the Maroon and White up for good.
However, SMS turned the momentum in short spurts down the stretch and got the better half of an aggressive joust inside the MSU penalty area on Yank’s penalty kick conversion in the 82nd tick (81:02). Yank assisted Mary Litvan with the gamewinner with 2:06 remaining to provide the heartbreak. Mississippi State will return to action this weekend as the Bulldogs
make their homecoming in a 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon contest against Jacksonville State at the Mississippi State Soccer Field. Admission to all 2002 Mississippi State home games is free.