The Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs produced two conflicting performances on the weekend, battling to a 0-0 tie with No. 28 South Carolina before succumbing to a 5-0 loss to Florida.
In soccer, a scoreless tie is typically blamed on either a woeful offensive performance or a heroic display of goalkeeping.On Friday, it was the latter as Mississippi State produced a superb defensive display to battle to a 0-0 draw with South Carolina (9-4-1, 1-3-1 SEC) after double overtime.
State goalkeeper Taryn Holland was in imperious form, recording nine saves on the night to help the Bulldogs to their second shutout of the season.
MSU head coach Neil MacDonald was full of praise for the sophomore, who has started in every game this season.
“Taryn is an outstanding keeper,” MacDonald said. “She put in an amazing performance. She came up on at least three occasions with some absolutely top-class saves and just had an excellent game.”
Holland’s first save of the night was a routine one, as South Carolina’s Darcel Mollon cut inside from the right to send a shot straight at the keeper.
The resulting counter-attack from State resulted in a deflected shot from Jessica Davis, and Hood’s goal-bound header was cleared off the line from the ensuing corner.
Holland was again forced into action near the end of the first half, stretching brilliantly to keep out Ashley Kirk’s 20-yard volley.
The Gamecocks looked to score in the 68th minute, with Leah Loguidice tapping in from close range after Holland had deflected Erin Sullivan’s 25-yard strike off the crossbar.
Fortunately for State, the goal was ruled out as Loguidice looked to have been in an offsides position.
Treena Ferguson almost produced an immediate response for the Bulldogs, spinning past two defenders before colliding with onrushing USC keeper Laura Armstrong. Lindsay Thorstenson then came on to play the next 40 minutes in place of the injured keeper.
Hood’s sliding shot in overtime almost won it for the Bulldogs, but neither team could score as Holland produced two more saves to preserve the tie through two overtimes.
“We’ve got to be happy with that,” MacDonald said of the team’s performance. “We’re a young team; we’re showing improvement all the time. I felt that towards the end we started to gain momentum and could have nicked it from them. But overall, I was very pleased.”
Sunday afternoon was an entirely different story, as the Bulldogs leaked five goals against an attacking Florida team (7-4-1, 3-2 SEC). The Gators were 3-0 by halftime, punishing an MSU defense that seemed lethargic after Friday night’s efforts.
“We got beat by a stronger, quicker, more athletic team,” MacDonald said. “We didn’t really show up today. We’re an awful lot better than what we played, but I think we were a little bit tired from Friday night’s game. Overall, I was very disappointed with our performance.”
The match started slowly for both sides, with the best chance in the opening 20 minutes coming as the Florida defense deflected a cross off its own crossbar.
State’s defense was finally unlocked after 23 minutes, as Shana Hudson’s neat give-and-go with Megan Kerns inside the box allowed her to finish inside the bottom corner.
Ashley Harris and Liz Ruberry each notched goals of their own to round out the scoring in the first half.
Bianca Gibbs made it 4-0 seven minutes after the restart, heading in at the far post from Hudson’s right wing cross.
State’s offense seemed to come alive midway through the second half, with Ferguson forcing two saves in succession from the Florida goalkeeper.
Still, it was not to be the Lady Bulldogs day as Gibbs added her second goal with three minutes left to play, knocking in Harris’ cross from close range to end the match at 5-0.
With the results of the weekend, MSU’s overall record moves to 5-8-1, and 1-4-1 in SEC play.