After achieving a 8-0 non conference record, Mississippi State soccer remains winless in the SEC, losing six games and tying two. During its last three contests, the Bulldogs will make a final bid to get into the SEC tournament.
The first game, played last night after the time of publication, kicked off what head coach Neil Macdonald said were must-win games for the Bulldogs.
“The last three games are cup finals for us,” he said. “We have to give everything that we’ve got in every game.”
The next test for MSU will be at 1 p.m. Sunday against Kentucky in Starkville.
Macdonald said both teams still have a shot of making the tournament where only the top eight teams in the SEC will be invited, and it will come down to who wants it more.
“It’s a big, big game for us. Both ourselves and Kentucky are fighting for that spot in the SEC tournament,” he said. “The bottom teams are all playing each other right now. Whoever can get the most points over the course of the next three games are the ones who are going to survive.”
Sunday’s matchup, however, holds a far deeper meaning, representing the final home game for State’s senior class, which consists of three players and a team assistant: midfielder Andrea Harrison, defender Hannah Tyler, goalkeeper Taryn Holland and assistant Katelyn Graben.
Harrison said while playing college soccer at MSU, she learned a lot about the sport but more importantly about herself.
“I’ve always wanted to play soccer since I was a little girl,” she said. “I always wanted to play in college, so it was a dream come true. And it taught me what it’s like to be part of a team, the friendships, the responsibility and the hard work – a lot of stuff that will carry on later in life.”
Macdonald said Harrison was one of his most coachable players.
“For me, it’s difficult to find a player who I respect more because she’s developed into a great soccer player,” he said. “When she came in here, she had some work to do, and she did it. She’s a player who has given everything to the cause and a player who has wanted to get better every day.”
At a scrimmage on Tuesday, Tyler, defender and team captain, sounded like a coach herself while yelling out orders, encouragement and criticism from her spot on the back line.
“That’s Hannah every day,” Macdonald said. “That’s what you get from her. She’s a leader, and she expects an awful lot from everyone around her because she gives everything she’s got. We’re not going to realize how much we’ll miss her until she’s gone.”
Tyler, not unlike her senior companions, said it was always her dream to play soccer in the SEC and becoming a team captain and leader was a great experience and honor.
“You know coming in you have to be a follower,” she said. “But once you start getting into the game and growing with all the other girls, you have to set an example, too, being a leader and helping, being a captain with my other teammates, being a friend – showing by example.”
Graben, a team assistant, is a former player who suffered a career-ending back injury, but who remained with the team as a student assistant.
Macdonald said she will also be honored at the Kentucky game.
“Her sophomore year, she was one of our top players in goals and assists,” he said. “It’s just very unfortunate that her career was cut short. [She’s] Another great role model for any young kid on and off the field. She’s been with us and helped out with the staff and is interested in becoming a coach herself. Hopefully it’s been a really good experience for her to get that exposure.”
Holland, a goalkeeper who is 23 saves away from an SEC record at the time of publication, has been a starter since her freshman year when she came on in the second half to help beat Tennessee for her first big SEC win. Macdonald said she is a great player, steady and consistent.
“On and off the field, she’s the right kind of person you want to have in your program and is a good leader for us,” he said.
Holland laughed when recalling her favorite moment from a match with South Carolina two years ago.
“The ball was played into the box and Hannah wanted me to get it, but she started dancing around the ball,” she said. “She was shielding, but she was basically dancing around the ball saying, ‘Get it Taryn, get it!’ We started dying laughing. Whenever I look back, I will be thinking about that time that Hannah went crazy.”
Each said the friendships they’ve made at State will stay with them for a long time, bonds forged from sharing big wins – such as a victory over No. 1 Georgia during their sophomore year – and from sticking together when big wins were harder to come by.
Holland said those times of adversity taught them more about themselves than any others.
“I think just the fact that we haven’t necessarily won a lot [helped build character],” she said. “People can come out of college and say they had a winning record, but the fact is we didn’t, and we’ve overcome it.
She said thinking back to her years as an underclassman is difficult. Through 2006 to 2008, MSU soccer amassed a record of 13-43-1.
“Looking back from freshman and sophomore year, it was just so difficult because we weren’t the team that we are now,” she said. “I think with Hannah being captain and [junior defender] Leanna [Baldner] being captain, they have actually changed this team. I think [what’s most important is] learning how to be a leader and overcoming adversity.”

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Adam Kazery

Hannah Tyler