On Sept. 8, the Mississippi State University women’s soccer team announced their team captains for the 2020 season via a twitter post: Alyssa D’Aloise, Andrea Tyrrell and Kristen Malebranche.
Alyssa D’Aloise, a junior kinesiology major from Dallas, Texas, will be leading the team during her first season as a Bulldog. She previously played club soccer throughout high school where she was a team captain, according to the MSU athletics website. Before transferring to MSU, she played the midfielder position at Texas Tech for both her freshman and sophomore years.
“Beyond thankful to be part of such a special program!!” D’Aloise shared in a tweet. “Honored to be a captain and can’t wait to take on the season with my girls.”
Junior midfielder and forward Andrea Tyrrell will also be leading the team this season. She is a marketing major from Toronto, Ontario, who is starting her third year at MSU. Her club team in high school won the Ontario Indoor Cup three consecutive years under the coaching of Mario Gagliardi, as stated in her bio.
During her previous two years at MSU, she has totaled 2509 playing minutes. Tyrrell played in every game her freshman year and started in every match her sophomore year. She shared how grateful she was in a tweet last week.
“I love these girls and this program. Being a captain is a privilege and honor I’m so grateful for!” Tyrrell shared.
Kristen Malebranche will be starting her senior season as a Bulldog. According to her player bio, she is a biochemistry major on the pre-med path. Before coming to MSU, the defender played both high school and club soccer in her hometown of Hillsborough, New Jersey.
She became valuable to the team early on by starting as a center back and playing 991 minutes her freshman year. Her sophomore and junior years went similarly as she started the majority of the games for both seasons. She will be starting this senior season leading the Bulldogs with 3243 minutes of playing at MSU under her belt.
“Words cannot describe how thankful and excited I am to head into my senior season with this team!!” Malebranche shared on Twitter after being announced as a captain. “So grateful for this program!”
The Bulldog soccer team has faced delays in their season this year along with the other teams on campus. According to a MSU Athletics release by Madelon Allen, the team received their new eight match, conference-only schedule last week.
D’Aloise, Tyrrell and Malebranche will start their season as captains on Sept. 18 in Auburn, Alabama. The Bulldogs won their match against Auburn in the 2019 season. Although they have faced delays in their season, Head Coach James Armstrong looks forward to an opportunity to play this year.
“We’re so grateful once again for the opportunity to play whilst also keeping the safety of our players at the forefront of our minds,” Armstrong said in the release about the new schedule. “Every game will provide a new challenge with a tough, high-quality opposition. We can’t wait to finally get to play teams other than ourselves after such a long wait. Our team is ready, excited, and optimistic about having a successful season.”