The Mississippi State soccer team (3-3) surrendered an early first half lead but used second half dominance on both sides of the ball to cruise by Tulane (1-4), 3-1, Friday evening at the Westfeldt Facility in New Orleans, La. The Maroon and White surrendered only three shots in the contest, including a lone Tulane shot in the second half. The Bulldogs got goals from three different players, including Jessi Moore’s and Amy Van Zandt’s third scores of the campaign. MSU goalkeeper Krystal Werges surrendered one goal in her sixth complete game of the season.
“Tonight was a tale of two halves,” Mississippi State head coach Neil McGuire said. “Tulane used the wind to their advantage to command much of the first half. We told our team at halftime that, if we utilized all the width available, we would create scoring opportunities. We did and, as a result, scored the necessary goals.
“This was, without question, our most disciplined performance of the season. It was a total team effort.”
Despite a flurry of first-half shots from State sophomore April Berry, Tulane got on the scoreboard first, using a bit of confusion in front of the MSU nets to create a shot that was finished by Tracey Powers’ in the 30th (29:31) minute.
Although clutching to the 1-0 deficit heading into the halftime break, Mississippi State answered quickly in the second half, knotting the score up at one apiece on Moore’s strike inside the far post in the 49th (48:31) minute, then took the lead in the 58th (58:00) tick on Van Zandt’s breakaway.
Amber Rose gave the Bulldogs an insurance goal in the 84th (83:34) minute when she collected a rebound off a Moore shot and rifled a shot past Tulane goalkeeper Kristin Weegar for the 3-1 final.
Nicky McLeod’s Golden Goal 31 seconds into the first overtime effectively halted a furious comeback effort by MSU (3-4) as Memphis (3-1-1) slipped by the visiting Bulldogs, 3-2, Sunday afternoon at the Mike Rose Soccer Complex.
Amy Van Zandt converted her team-leading fourth goal of the season on seven shots from her forward position, while Ngum Suh added her first score of the season with six minutes remaining in regulation.
Southeastern Conference saves leader Krystal Werges tallied six saves in the losing effort.
The contest marked MSU’s fifth one-goal game of the season and put an end to a five-game winning streak in overtime for the Bulldogs. With the victory, Memphis evened up the overall series between the two schools to 3-3-2.
“It would be unfair to the University of Memphis to make any excuses about why we lost this game,” McGuire said. “We knew what we needed to do, yet did not execute our game plan. Memphis is very much improved and Brooks Monaghan has done a fantastic job recruiting on the international scene. It is time for our players to take control of what we do and get back on track.”
State took the initiative early getting off a pair of good looks that failed to connect, including Jessi Moore’s give-and-go that sailed just wide of the Tiger nets a little more than 16 minutes in. State sustained its first shot of the contest on a Becca Amrowicz header at the 17:03 mark, but the shot sailed wide right. The duo found shots far and few over the next 18 minutes until the 36th minute (35:44) when speedster Alison Baker’s through-ball found the feet of Robyn Smart who converted on the scoring chance.
Memphis forged a 2-0 lead six minutes into the second period on Baker’s fourth goal of the campaign. Kirsty Marr found Baker slicing through the Bulldog defense and the flanker fired a shot under the outstetched Werges on the near side.
Faced with the 2-0 deficit, however, State turned the other cheek. The Bulldogs got to within one, 2-1, in the 64th minute (63:48) when Van Zandt found space in the Memphis defense and hit a cannon shot far post. The Bulldogs turned the volume up on their offense after that, using high pressure to force Memphis back on their heels but, each time, having their scoring chance thwarted just short.
However, with less than six minutes remaining, Suh collected a loose ball and flicked a shot over Tiger goalkeeper Katarina Wicksell to knot the score up at two apiece.
With the momentum clearly on the Bulldogs’ side, Memphis put the game-winning chance together when Monica Powell found McLeod racing down the near touchline.
Mississippi State will return to action this weekend when the Bulldogs visit the Show Me State for a pair of games to wrap up their four-game roadtrip.
State will take on regionally-ranked Missouri on Friday at 7 p.m. in Columbia, Mo., and will be in action again on Sunday when it visits Springfield for a 1 p.m. date with Southwest Missouri State.