Back line can't hold as 'Dores fall to Bama, 5-2

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Goals from Sasha Gray and Cheyna Williams were not enough as the Vanderbilt women’s soccer team dropped its first SEC road match of the 2013 season to Alabama, 5-2, at the Alabama Soccer Stadium, Friday night.

“I’m really disappointed in our team after this one,” said head coach Derek Greene. “We came out so flat in the first 15 minutes. We were disorganized in the back. There just weren’t many positives from this game. We you go on the road in the SEC you can’t afford to come out slow, and that is what we did today.”

The Commodores found themselves in an early hole as the Crimson Tide jumped on the board first scoring goals in the first seven, 14 and 18 minutes of play.

Vanderbilt cut the Alabama lead to two in the 21st minute of action when Taylor Richardson sent a cross into the box to Sasha Gray. The ball just cleared over the heads of the jumping Tide defense where Gray was able to leap up from behind and head the ball past the keeper into the far corner of the net.

“We eventually settled down,” Greene went on to say. “We were the better team for the remainder of the game, except every time they got into the 18 they scored. We didn’t give many good looks, but we did a bad job defending the looks they did get.”

Alabama was able to put seven of their 17 shots on net, scoring on five of those chances. f

Vandy was able to get on the board again in the 68th minute when Cheyna Williams collected the ball from Kelsey Tillman at the top of the 18. Williams with her back to the net, spun and ripped a shot over the keeper, grazing off the bottom of the crossbar into the back of the net.

Bama killed any sort of rally the Commodores were brewing when they scored their fifth and final goal of the game, less than one minute after Williams’.

Vanderbilt will head to College Station, Texas on Sunday for a match with Texas A&M.