The Vanderbilt women’s soccer team posted its second straight shutout in a 2-0 victory over the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles Sunday.
Senior Nicole Adams and sophomore Kate Goldin each scored for the Commodores, now 3-1 with victories also over Alabama-Birmingham and Tennessee Tech. The lone loss was to Minnesota.
Adams’ leaping header in the 15th minute from senior Molly Kinsella’s cross gave the Commodores an early lead in what was a mostly one-sided affair.
“Their keeper came out and surprised me — she was picking everything up,” Adams said. “So I basically just wanted to get it away from her.”
Even after the goal, the Commodores continued to fire away at the Southern Miss net, ending up with 15 shots in the game. Southern Miss goalkeeper Hannah Vanderbough kept the Golden Eagles in the game with seven saves and strong play in the air, catching or deflecting numerous Vanderbilt crosses.
Vanderbough was beaten, however, on Goldin’s 83rd-minute goal that appeared to be a cross that floated into the top of the net.
“It was definitely a cross, but it’s awesome that it went in,” Goldin said. “I like to attack out of the back, and the way they were playing in the second half it seemed like I’d have more space … That’s all that (head coach Ronnie Woodward) wanted me to do was to go to goal and get a cross or a shot off, and it worked.”
The Vanderbilt defense, led by senior goalkeeper Rachel Bachtel, only allowed five shots all game; only one of those five was on goal, forcing a great foot save from Bachtel.
Vanderbilt played the last 33 minutes of the game with a man advantage after Southern Miss junior defender Amy Davis received a yellow card, then a red card, on consecutive plays where she fouled senior Megan Kinsella.
“(Southern Miss) was a very competitive team, and they really challenged our physical game,” Woodward said. “ As a group, we have to step up to a larger challenge, and we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard in the future. We play two top 25 teams this week … Playing two games on the road is hard enough, playing two games in three days is hard enough, and then you add in that we’re playing two top 25 opponents, and that makes it even more difficult.”
Vanderbilt will face No. 17 Wake Forest on Sept. 10 and No. 23 Virginia Tech on Sept. 12 in Blacksburg, Va. The team will return home the following weekend to close out the non-conference portion of the schedule with games against Valaparaiso and Wisconsin.
