Soccer vs Mississippi State (SEC Tournament) Preview and Gamethread

The Commodores play their first match of the SEC Soccer Tournament at noon Central time today. They enter as the 7^th seed and will face the 10^th seed Mississippi State Bulldogs at the Orange Beach Sportsplex in Orange Beach, Alabama. Vanderbilt was 4-4 for the regular season and are coming off a frustrating overtime loss to the Ole Miss Rebels that ended a 3-match winning streak.

In their last match, Myra Konte scored in the 8^th minute to take an early 1-0 lead. The score would stay the same until the 86^th minute when Ramsey Davis brought Ole Miss level. Ole Miss got the Golden Goal 3 minutes into overtime through Channing Foster. Vanderbilt had mostly controlled the flow of the game with 58% of the possession and advantages in shot attempts (14 to 13) and shots on goal (10 to 6). Corner kick opportunities were also in favor of the Commodores 8 to 4. However, they were not able to find a second goal to extend their lead, and Ole Miss was able to find the leveling goal in the dying moments.

Mississippi State as 2-3-3 on the season and ended their regular season with 1-2 loss in Starkville to Arkansas. The Bulldogs lost 3 of their last 4 matches with the other being a tie hosting Missouri. Their matches have tended to be low-scoring affairs with opponents averaging 1.38 goals per game while State scores 0.88 goals per game. Coincidentally, Vanderbilt has averaged scoring 1.38 goals per game while opponents have scored 1.25 goals per game. No Bulldog has scored more than 2 goals per game, so it is a bit difficult to know who the most dangerous threat to the Commodore goal will be. Onyi Echegini and Monigo Karnley both tallied 2 goals and 1 assist. Only Birna Johannsdottir had multiple assists with 2 on the 8-game season.

This match will be televised on the SEC Network with the winner moving on to face the #2 Seed Tennessee Volunteers on Tuesday, November 17.