Mississippi State University women’s soccer team won 1-0 against the Ole Miss Rebels on Sunday in their fourth consecutive victory for the Magnolia Cup. The Bulldogs’ win has now put Mississippi State with a conference record of 3-2-1.
In the first half of the game, the ball moved continuously down both halves of the field. Both Mississippi State and Ole Miss put up a good fight for possession of the ball. Within the first five minutes of the game, both teams had the chance for a shot at the goal, but both shots were missed.
On the field, the intensity built up as the Bulldogs got their second and third corner kicks. The fans remained eager, roaring with anticipation as they waited to see if Mississippi State would put the first goal on the scoreboard.
With ten minutes left in the first half of the game, Mississippi State’s junior forward Ilana Izquierdo scored the first goal into the bottom left of the net off a penalty kick. Ole Miss made their sixth foul, which worked to MSU’s advantage.
The Mississippi State Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead against the Ole Miss Rebels to start the second half of the game. The second half started off slowly compared to the energy brought in the first, but the girls remained strong.
At about forty-nine minutes into the game, MSU had another attempted shot on goal by sophomore defender Molly McDougal. For the first twenty minutes of the second half, the Bulldogs continued to play heavy defense as Ole Miss gained a few more attempts to score.
MSU did not remain defensive for too long though. They quickly switched gears and headed up towards the goal again. As the game neared the end, the intensity quickly built up once again as both teams pushed to earn a goal.
The energy after the game remained high from the big win. MSU was very happy to pull out another win against Ole Miss — their biggest rival. Izquierdo was thrilled about being able to help the team pull out a big win.
“I was happy to get the opportunity to take the PK and happy when it went in,” Izquierdo said.
Being a native of Colombia, Izquierdo has experienced many exciting wins but this record-breaking victory will definitely be one to remember.
“It was beautiful,” Izquierdo said. ”It was the first time I got to experience this in the U.S.”
The match was memorable for the Bulldogs and their fans. It has also created irreplaceable memories and quite the experience for Izquierdo.
Mississippi State head coach James Armstrong was very impressed with the team and happy that many team members have gotten to experience winning the Magnolia Cup for four years now.
“It’s our fourth year in a row, we are proud of that,” Armstrong said. ”You know we have got players on the field that are leaving at the end of the year and are graduating, and they have managed to win four years in a row.”
The Bulldogs have managed to take down the Rebels once again and with the energy brought tonight, there will hopefully be more wins to come for the rest of the season.
Mississippi State soccer will travel to Lexington, Kentucky, on Sunday to take on the Wildcats at 2:00 p.m. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network.

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Noah Carpenter | The Reflector

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