Melissa Capocaccia (18) heads the ball in Sunday’s game against Iowa State. (Photo | The Daily Mississippian, Cady Herring)
Ole Miss soccer head coach Matthew Mott took the podium Monday afternoon to address the media about last week’s matches and to discuss the upcoming season.
Mott started his opening statementby saying how excited he was about the upcoming season as well as howappreciative he was of the fans’ support from Friday’s televised season opener against Georgia.
“I’m excited to get the season started. We obviously had a very exciting game on Friday night opening the season with a conference game on the SEC Network,” Mott said. “It was almost overwhelming for our team and coaching staff with the support we got really from all different angles and certainly the fans. We had a record 1,823 fans. It was just awesome. It was packed, and it was standing-room only. You could feel the energy from the crowd, and we really appreciated it.”
Regarding the team’s performance in last week’s opener against Georgia, Mott seemed pleased with the team’s overall effort.
“It was really a fast-paced, intense game. I thought our girls handled it pretty well. I was happy with the way we played, for the most part, in the game,” Mott said. “We had one lapse on a set piece, and they did a nice job of finishing it. For us to battle back and get a goal and then give ourselves a couple other good chances was exciting for us as we go forward and get back into non-conference play.”
The Rebels went on to play Iowa State in another close match Sunday, this time managing to pull out a 1-0 win over the Cyclones with a scoring penalty kick from senior goalkeeper Kelly McCormick.
“Our girls came out and played really, really well … We were able to get a goal off a penalty. Jennifer Miller drew a penalty, and we had Kelly McCormick, our goalkeeper, come up and take the penalty. She struck it great and scored for us,” said Mott. “We didn’t get that second goal to put the game away, but I’m certainly happy with how we performed under the conditions with the minutes we played on Friday in that kind of environment and then turned around and played again.”
The Ole Miss Women’s soccer team will take to the road for their next matchup set for 5 p.m. Friday against the Louisville Kentucky Cardinals.
Volleyball press conference recap
Ole Miss head volleyball coach Steven McRoberts also met with the media Monday to talk about pre season camp and the new season.
“We have been in camp for 16 days now, 23 practices, seven weightlifting sessions and feel like we have come a long way as a team,” McRoberts said. “The number one thing that we have talked a lot about for this season is making sure that we instill our core values and understand the process of creating a top-25 type volleyball program here. I’m really proud of these young ladies and the work that they have put in because they have put in a ton.”
The Ole miss volleyball team will head to Buffalo, New York, to start off the season with their first of four tournament games beginning 9 a.m. Friday against Canisius and ending noon Sunday against host Buffalo.
“We’ll have two matches on Friday that will allow us to look at some different lineups and then make some decisions as we go through this weekend,” McRoberts said. “Probably at this point, we’re anticipating Buffalo on Sunday, looking at last year’s things, being the toughest match on the weekend, and we’re, of course, playing them on their home court on Sunday.”
Regarding the team’s starting players, McRoberts said they haven’t 100 percent settled on a line-up, which in turn will give several players a chance for more playing time.
“We have played with a couple of lineups, and we like both of them a lot. Most of it utilizing the same personnel, but some of it utilizes some of our other players,” McRoberts said. “When you have a four-match weekend, you can get a lot of your players playing time. It’s a good thing, especially early in the season.”
Maggie Mitchell
mlmitch1@go.olemiss.edu
