Women’s Soccer Battles to 0-0 Tie with Ole Miss 10/20/02

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - On a cold and damp afternoon in Nashville, the Vanderbilt women’s soccer team battled to a scoreless draw with SEC Western Division foe Mississippi at the Vanderbilt Soccer Complex. The Commodores picked up an important point with the tie, and now head into next weekend’s SEC regular season finales against Louisiana State and Arkansas needing two victories to keep their conference tournament hopes alive.

With the tie, Vanderbilt moves to 4-8-1 overall and 2-4-1 in the SEC, while Ole Miss goes to 11-2-2 and 3-2-1 in the conference. The Commodores now lead the all-time series with the Rebels, 3-1-1.

The stories of the game were the two defenses and goalkeepers. In 110 minutes of action, Vanderbilt was only able to muster up 13 shots, while Ole Miss finished with only nine shots. Forward Laura Hershenow led the Black and Gold with four shots, while three Ole Miss players had two shots apiece.

Vanderbilt’s Lauren Whitt and Ole Miss’ Brittany Gillespie both had outstanding afternoon’s in goal. Whitt, who was seeing her first start of the season, recorded her first shutout of the season. Whitt, who has dealt with injuries while at Vanderbilt, now has 10.5 shutouts for her career. She finished with three saves on the afternoon. Gillespie recorded her second-consecutive shutout for the Rebels, which gives her 6.5 for the season. She was challenged a litte bit more throughout the game, as she finished with nine saves.

Midfielder Katharine Carroll had an solid scoring opportunity in the first half when her header hit the Ole Miss crossbar and bounced directly down; however, the Commodores were not able to put the rebound in the back of the net.

The game was rather physical at the defensive ends, and this is indicative by the 31 total fouls issued and two yellow cards. Vanderbilt finished with 16 fouls to Ole Miss’ 15, while the Commodores were issued with both cards.

Vanderbilt concludes the SEC regular season portion of its schedule next weekend, when it takes on Louisiana State at 7 p.m. Friday in Baton Rouge, La., and Arkansas at 1 p.m. Sunday in Fayetteville, Ark.