Mississippi player celebrate with Jessica Hiskey (15) after Hiskey’s goal during an NCAA college soccer game in Oxford, Miss., Sunday, Sept. 6, 2014. (Photo/Thomas Graning)
After opening the season with a Southeastern Conference matchup, playing Georgia to a 1-1 draw in the first-ever live, on-campus broadcast on the SEC Network, Ole Miss returns to league play traveling to face Mississippi State tonight in a match also televised by the SEC Network.
The Rebels look to reverse a recent trend, and last won Starkville in 2009.
“They’re going to be ready to go,” head coach Matt Mott said. “We have to get ourselves ready to go. We haven’t won down there since I have been here. It’s been a really tough place to play. You throw the record out and you throw history out and you go play. You’re playing for the Magnolia Cup and that’s something that’s really important to us.”
The match carries added importance for the team’s four native Mississippians in sophomore Sara Coleman (Laurel), Addie Forbus (Amory), Georgia Russell (Tupelo) and freshman MacKenzie Dickerson (Kosciusko). They are also familiar with many of their opponents from high school and club soccer.
“We always pride ourselves on being from Mississippi,” Coleman said. “There aren’t very many of us, so we try to represent our state well and push really hard.”
“It’s always extra important when you play a team where you have kids from your hometown,” Forbus said. “When I go back to Amory, people are going to ask, `How did you do against Mississippi State?’ So it’s always nice when you win that game.”
After playing the most minutes of any non-starter as a freshman, Forbus has stepped into a starter’s role and already equaled her goal total with four goals in eight games this season.
“Getting the hat trick got my confidence up early in the season, so now I know I’m able to score goals, and as a team, I know we put the ball in the back of the net,” said Forbus, who also set the state record with 231 goals in her high school career.
Coleman has come back after a year off, while Russell is 100 percent healthy after battling injuries for much of her Ole Miss career. They have become two of the first players off the bench for the Rebels. They each had perhaps their best games of the season in the win over MTSU, with Coleman assisting on a goal and drawing a penalty to set up another, and Russell scoring her first career collegiate goal.
“I feel like my touch is still coming along, but I’m getting there,” Coleman said. “I’m glad to be back and comfortable with the team, and they have been great support. My coaches have helped me get back to where I should be so I have been happy with the season so far.”
“It was a struggle,” Russell said. “I had to get back in shape and get my touch back on the ball. I hurt my ankle last season. It’s been a struggle and I’m getting there. It looks like things are coming together. I’m 100 percent healthy, and I want to keep it that way.”
As important as the rivalry is to the players from Mississippi, and their teammates who also understand its importance, the focus has remained on the game as part of the bigger picture for the program.
“It’s more about getting them focused on it being a 90-minute game on the field when the whistle blows and not getting caught up in who we’re playing and what we’re doing and sticking with our process and what we do,” Mott said. “That’s the big focus for us.”
