Rafaelle Souza slide tackles a Vanderbilt player during the soccer game on Friday in Oxford.
Photo by Austin McAfee I The Daily Mississippian
The Rebels have one of their toughest weekends of the season on deck as they travel to Baton Rouge to face the conference-leading LSU Tigers on Friday, and then return to Oxford to face South Carolina on Sunday, who is second in the conference.
Ole Miss (11-3-1, 4-2-0 Southeastern Conference) was able to escape with a 1-0 last week against Vanderbilt, after taking 30 shots to the Commodores five in the game. In his weekly press conference, head coach Matt Mott commended his team for their defensive performance. Another performance like that one will certainly be essential to the Rebels continued success, because, as Mott noted, LSU freshman forward Summer Clarke leads the SEC in goals in conference play.
The Tigers (9-3-2, 5-0-1 SEC) enter Friday’s match just outside of the NSCAA Top 25 poll this week, although they have not lost a game since a Sept. 13 match against Stephen F. Austin, winning six of seven since then. The Tigers only home loss this season came at the hands of 10th ranked BYU on Sept. 2.
South Carolina (12-1-1, 5-1-0 SEC) will hang its hat on great defense for its Sunday afternoon match with the Rebels. Goal keeper Sabrina D’Angelo leads the conference in save percentage with .857 and is tied for the conference lead in shutouts with nine. The No. 13 Gamecocks have allowed a total of six goals the entire season. They will try to use their team-defense approach to stop conference goal leader Rafaelle Souza, who is tied with Florida’s Savannah Jordan with 13 on the season.
Sunday’s match against Ole Miss will be the second in South Carolina’s two-game road trip this weekend. They will travel to Columbia to face the Missouri Tigers on Friday.
Friday’s match against LSU is scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff, and Sunday’s match versus South Carolina will kick off at 1 p.m. Sunday is also Dad and Daughter Day at the Ole Miss Soccer Complex.
