The Mississippi State women’s soccer team hosted two games this weekend at home against Vanderbilt on Friday and Texas A&M on Sunday. The Bulldogs were unable to come away with their first SEC win in either game after putting up a tough Friday performance, only to give up a late goal that would ultimately be the winner for the Commodores. This was followed by a Sunday loss to A&M highlighted by a strong showing in the second half by the Bulldogs. However, it was little too late as A&M put three goals in the net during the first half of the match. 
Starting with Friday’s match against Vanderbilt, it was clear one team would walk away from Starkville with the confidence boost of obtaining its first win within the conference. For the Bulldogs, the major change on the field came with the decision from head coach Aaron Gordon to push Kayleigh Henry up the field and move Shelby Jordan back to her old natural position at right back. Gordon described the move as something he thought would benefit the team and give the team a spark at this point in the season.  
“We were just really trying to get a little bit of the mentality that we needed. Not that Shelby wasn’t giving it to us, but Kayleigh Henry is a very, very competitive person,” he said. “She’s great in the back, but we just wanted to flip the script, so to speak.”
The first half of the match was very evenly played with neither team really managing to take a hold of the game. One of the defining moments of the first half came in the 34th minute when Simone Charley of Vanderbilt was able to head the ball toward goal, but was denied by the outstretched hand of Bulldog keeper Rhylee DeCrane.  DeCrane was able to deflect the ball against the top post, and the Bulldog defense reacted quickly enough to clear the ball away from danger. In spite of the appeals from Vanderbilt that the ball did indeed cross the goal line, the match remained scoreless.
Through the second half, Vanderbilt started to attack the Bulldogs fearlessly. They  ended up tallying a total of 12 shots in the second half alone and overall gave DeCrane a lot to deal with. Maybe the best opportunity of the match for the Bulldogs came in the 63rd minute, when Shannen Jainudeen was able to get free and put a header on goal. However, Vanderbilt keeper Christiana Ogunsami was able to come up big for the Commodores with a save. 
DeCrane once again made a spectacular save for the Bulldogs in the 75th minute as she had to full-out dive to stop Charley from finally scoring, but the effort on the part of Decrane was just too good on this occasion. DeCrane would say after the game having the right mentality  leads to great goalkeeping.  
“My mindset going into every game is to get every ball no matter what.  If that means punching a player when I go for the ball or giving 100 percent diving for a ball, you just have to be the block in the back,” she said. “Be communicating, and be doing everything you can to keep that ball out of the net.”
The moment that would ultimately decide the game came in the 78th minute when Charley once again got free in the box on a corner, but this time her header was placed so perfectly there was nothing DeCrane could do. Charley’s goal was enough to seal the 1-0 win for the Commodores and give them their first win in SEC play.