The 12th-ranked Ole Miss soccer team lost a 1-0 defensive battle Thursday night against the Vanderbilt Commodores, snapping their five-game winning streak.
The Rebels fell to 13-4-2 with the loss.
“Vanderbilt had a really good game plan,” Ole Miss head coach Matthew Mott said. “They made it tough for us and battled really hard. There wasn’t enough urgency in our attack and that’s disappointing.”
Before the game, Ole Miss honored the senior class.
“The senior class is definitely the backbone of this team,” junior forward Addie Forbus said. “They’ve stepped up in big games and they’re carrying us.”
Addie Forbus dribbles down the field in the game Thursday. (DM Photo | Marlee Crawford)
“We wanted to come here and make a difference,” senior defender Maddie Friedmann said.
“We’ve put together a team with a lot of chemistry.”
Once the game started, redshirt freshman goalkeeper Marnie Merritt made two great saves in the first half to keep Vanderbilt off the scoreboard. She came off her line to stop a breakaway on one occasion, and dove to her left to knock away a shot on another.
Vanderbilt finally broke through in the 84th minute when redshirt sophomore midfielder Lydia Simmons scored her first goal of the season.
The Commodores sat in their own half defensively throughout the game to disrupt the Ole Miss offense, and it worked.
“They were getting numbers behind the ball and they defended really hard,” Mott said. “When you play a team like that, you have to get a goal to pull them out a little bit, and we just couldn’t do that.”
The Ole Miss offense was out of rhythm all night and wasn’t able to convert any of their scarce good looks at goal.
“They were really compact and it was really hard to break them down,” Forbus said. “We had a couple of good looks at goal, but unfortunately we couldn’t put them away this game.”
The Rebels were looking to put this game behind them as they will head into the SEC tournament next week as the no. 3 seed and have earned a first round bye.
“We’re going to look at the mistakes we made this game and not let it beat us twice,” Forbus said. “I don’t think there’s a team that can beat us in the SEC tournament. We know what the teams look like and we know what we’re capable of. You can put us up against anyone in the SEC.”
“The bye is huge for us,” Mott added. “It gives us a chance to get really fresh and hungry going into the first game.”
