The Mississippi State University soccer team endured many struggles to start the 2015 campaign this year. Coach Aaron Gordon has expressed his disappointments with the team, but they have also displayed signs of improvements from last year.
The Bulldogs have already beaten last year’s mark on wins and they are a much improved team with the leadership of Ari Holmes and Shelby Jordan. The Bulldogs have started SEC play. They suffered a hard fought 2-1 loss to Vanderbilt last Friday.
Jordan scored her first goal of the season this past weekend in the 20th minute for the Bulldogs as they managed to get their second win of the season against Lipscomb. The Bulldogs came out firing this game shooting 11of its first 22 shots on goal in the first half of action.
The season started very promising, as they managed to get big wins over their opponents Memphis, and UT Martin. MSU managed to begin the season 2-0, but since then the Bulldogs have gone 2-5-1 with a tie against Southern Miss here in Starkville.
Despite their 2-5-1 record with a 0-1 record in SEC play, Head Coach Aaron Gordon has managed to rack up a strong and talented group of girls who seem to work their tails off every game. The games they have lost all came down to the wire and they compete very hard until the final buzzer every game.
There is a much different atmosphere at the games this year as fans pile up in the stands to watch the soccer team play. They have also gotten phenomenal play from Ari Holmes this year. Holmes is a transfer from Fresno State University and is very hard to get around as a defender and boasts one of the strongest legs out on the pitch.
Kiley Martens is the Bulldog’s leading scorer this year with three goals in eight games. Another key contributor to the Bulldogs success is goalie Tanya De Souza. She has been the goalie for every game this year and has been a dominant force all year long for the bulldogs. De Souza hails from France and has been a student here at MSU for two years now.
Even though the Bulldogs dropped their first SEC game of the season the game was very close and they fought extremely hard. The Bulldogs managed to get 18 shots on goal and goalie de Souza had a total of 10 saves. The final score to that game was 2-1 as Vanderbilt caught some lucky breaks in the game to secure the win.
TheBulldogs continue this weekend against Arkansas in Fayetville. They will begin action Sunday at 12 p.m. They hope to get a desperate SEC win this weekend as they haven’t done so in years.
