TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – If conference road games provide a worthy test of a team’s measure, Ole Miss is passing with flying colors after completing a weekend sweep with a 2-1 victory over Alabama on Sunday afternoon at the Alabama Soccer Stadium.
Amy Bayles and Danielle Johnson scored for the Rebels, who take over first place in the Southeastern Conference Western Division with a 3-1 league mark after two weekends and improve to 5-5-2 overall. The Crimson Tide dropped to 7-4-1 overall and 2-2 in SEC contests.
Ole Miss put on a powerful and balanced offensive display over the weekend. Four different players collected a total of five goals, led by Taylor Cunningham’s two scores in the 3-1 Friday night win at Auburn. Four different Rebels also recorded assists on the weekend, and Ole Miss finds itself riding a season-long three-match win streak.
“Wow, it’s nice to come out of here with a win,” said Steve Holeman, who collected his 150th career victory as a head coach on Sunday. “SEC road wins don’t come easy, and that was the case today. We dominated the first half, but even with a two-goal lead at halftime, it was a grind. We had a defensive miscue that allowed Alabama to make it 2-1, and that just really gave them a lot of momentum and put us on our heels in the second half.”
Ole Miss wasted no time getting on the scoreboard as they took the opening kickoff to produce a scoring chance right away, and All-SEC midfielder Bayles connected for the go-ahead score just 25 seconds into the match. After a long ball in the air, Hannah Weatherly played a ball out wide to Bayles, who beat her defender 1 v 1 and struck her shot inside the far post for her first goal of the season.
“That first goal happened so fast,” Holeman said. “It was definitely a comfortable way to start a match.”
The Rebels maintained their 1-0 lead for the next 35 minutes before taking advantage of a well-struck free kick from the corner of the 18-yard-box by Mallory Coleman that found a charging Johnson, who headed the ball in for her first goal of the season and a 2-0 Rebel lead.
The first half belonged to Ole Miss as the road team out-shot the home squad 13-7, but the second half was a different story with Shannon Lathrop scoring for the Tide at the 47:05 mark and Alabama out-shooting Ole Miss 9-4.
Ole Miss found a way to hang onto the advantage, though, and improve its league win streak to three. The Rebels entered the season with a 15-match unbeaten streak against SEC West foes prior to the league-opening loss to Arkansas.
“It’s always tough to win any SEC match, especially on the road,” Holeman said. “This was a huge weekend for us. I hope we can even take a little bit of a lesson from today. We are certainly a better team than we showed today, but we still found a way to win. We have to be ready to hit the road again. It only gets more difficult as we go through the entire conference season.”
The four-game road swing continues next weekend when the Rebels visit nationally ranked Florida on Friday and nationally ranked South Carolina on Sunday. The two SEC East squads sit 1-2 atop that division.
Rebs drop Auburn 3-1
AUBURN, Ala. – Sophomore forward Taylor Cunningham netted a pair of goals, and Ole Miss kicked off a four-game road stand in a big way with a 3-1 victory over the Auburn Tigers Friday night at the Auburn Soccer Complex.
Ole Miss used a crisp passing game to keep the upper-hand in possession for most of the match but was also able to capitalize on opportunities and score a season-high three times against a solid Auburn defense. The win improved the Rebels’ overall record to 4-5-2, and their league mark to 2-1, while Auburn dropped to 5-5-2 overall and 1-1-1 in SEC play.
“This was probably our most complete game of the year,” said Rebel head coach Steve Holeman. “Everyone played well and played well for all 90 minutes. (Auburn’s) Allison Whitworth is a big-time keeper, and to score on her you have to have big-time goals, and we had that tonight. It was a great SEC soccer match, and I think the fans definitely got their money’s worth.”
The Rebels got on the board first at the 7:38 mark in the first half. Amy Bayles played a ball to Cunningham, who from about 25 yards struck a low shot into the side netting for her second goal of the season.
Auburn countered in the 27th minute when a ball was served in from the left flank and flicked to the back post, where Mary Nicholson knocked in a first-time volley for the equalizing score.
Cunningham and the Rebels continued to attack and did not let the match get to halftime before capitalizing again for a 2-1 lead. Stacey Emmonds controlled a ball from the left side of the midfield and served it to the back post, where Cunningham controlled and buried it for her second score of the contest.
Not settling for a one-score lead, the Rebels found the back of the net one more time at the 64:04 mark in the second half, this time off the foot of freshman Kelsey Breathitt, who registered her first collegiate goal when she made a back-post run up the left side of the field and knocked in a ball served from Mallory Coleman off the right flank.
The final 15 minutes saw an offensive surge by Auburn after the Tigers switched to a formation that dropped them to three defenders in the backfield. But the Rebel defense stayed strong to preserve the two-goal victory.
Rebel goalkeeper Megan Vickery earned the win with three saves in ninety minutes of action between the posts.
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