OXFORD, Miss. – In their first meeting with new head coach Darren Ambrose in February, the Vanderbilt soccer team made it clear they wanted to reach the SEC Tournament.
On Thursday, the Commodores reaped the benefits of their hard work and accomplished their goal.
Vanderbilt clinched a berth in the SEC Tournament for the first time in five years with a 1-0 victory over No. 12 Ole Miss in the regular-season finale. Lydia Simmons scored the game winner in the 85th minute to stun the Rebels and send the Commodores to the conference tournament in Orange Beach, Ala.
When Vanderbilt last made the 10-team, single-elimination tournament in 2010 none of the current players were on the team. The ‘Dores (8-7-4, 4-4-3) are the eighth seed and will play No. 9 seed Georgia at 6 p.m. (CST) on Monday at the Orange Beach Sportsplex. The game will be aired on the SEC Network.
“I’m happy for our seniors, first and foremost,” Ambrose said. “I’m ecstatic for them. I said this on Senior Day, I’m just grateful they gave us a chance to put some of our philosophy in. They didn’t fight us. They supported it and they’ve worked their tails off. So I am happy for them. This is the rewarding part about what we do. We’ve had some moments, like any season, any team, where I’ve been disappointed in their performance, but it is through those moments and pushing them a little harder that they get to realize moments like this.
“I’m happy for the program. Vanderbilt probably belongs there (at the SEC Tournament on a consistent basis). That is what we’re working for long term and some consistency to it. I’m really pleased for our kids.”
With less than six minutes remaining, Simmons broke a scoreless tie with her fifth goal of the season. Senior Jamie Kator dropped a pass to Simmons, who was outside the box on the left wing. The sophomore midfielder juked a defender, turned and scorched a shot with her left foot into the top left corner and out of reach of diving Ole Miss goalkeeper Marnie Merritt.
“A fire shot,” senior captain Erin Myers said. “Beautiful.”
“The ball came across and Simone (Charley) sacrificed and threw her leg in there,” Simmons said. “It caused the defender to disrupt the clearance out. Jamie just played the ball in. I took a touch and hit it. I was hoping (it would go in).”
The goal lifted the Commodores to their first victory over Ole Miss (13-4-2, 7-4) since 2009, which was also the last year they won their regular-season finale.
It was the second win over a Top 20 opponent this season after knocking off No. 8 South also their Carolina two weeks ago. Both victories came on the road. Vanderbilt was 2-2-1 against ranked opponents with a tie against No. 20 Kentucky and one-goal losses to No. 5 Texas A&M and No. 9 Florida (the SEC regular-season champ).
Vanderbilt entered the final regular-season game in a four-way tie for eighth place and just one point ahead of Mississippi State. There was the potential of any number of tiebreaker scenarios unfolding as the four other teams in the hunt for one of the final SEC Tournament spots. Therefore, Vanderbilt opened with a 3-4-2-1 formation, with only Simone Charley up front. The idea was to pack as many players in the midfield and on defense to prevent an Ole Miss goal.
The Commodores executed the plan as well as Ambrose and his coaching staff could have imagined. Ole Miss won the shooting battle 11-5, but the Rebels only put two shots on goal. Goalkeeper Christiana Ogunsami stopped both and the defense neutralized any threats, including a huge slide tackle late by Myers. Conversely, Vanderbilt had four shots on goal and Simmons’ game winner was the team’s only shot in the second half.
“I thought we battled hard. Ole Miss is a very good team and they gave us fits,” Ambrose said. “I credit to our back line and our defending, which has been great all year. I thought we were very good defensively. We thought we might catch them on a counter attack, which worked out. Lydia gets half a chance, she usually puts it on frame. I could hear (Ole Miss) shouting to their team, ‘Keep her on her right foot.’ But that kid knows how to get on her left foot. One of those, all she needs is a moment. She is such a pure striker of the ball that the minute we saw her lining up all of us coaches were like, ‘This is it.’ “Pleased for her, too. She has come out of a couple weeks where I don’t think she has been overly pleased with her own performances. She stuck at it, she dealt with it well and came out and had another good game tonight.”
During their first regular season under Ambrose, in his first year coaching at Vanderbilt after 15 at Penn, the Commodores made huge strides.
At 8-7-4, Vanderbilt finished with a winning record in the regular season for the first time since 2009. Eight wins marks the program’s most since 2011. Four SEC wins are the most in five years. A 4-4-3 record in SEC play marks the first winning season in league action since 2006. The Commodores also allowed its fewest goals (20) since 2006. Four SEC shutouts are the most in five years.
“It is incredible,” Myers said of the quick progress in the first year of a new coaching staff. “They really started in the spring. They had their work cut out for them, taking on the behind the scenes stuff of the core values, the culture and the attitude. Just instilling a different way of us going about practice every day. If you go in every day and find this consistent work ethic, competitive spirit – that is something we lacked it at times the last three years. Just sticking with us, holding us accountable, pushing our limits and proving that we’ve had the talent all along, we’ve had the ability and not waiting ’til we win something to act like that.
“We’re just so happy to do this for them, for them to help us get there. It is just incredible and it is awesome.”
The Commodores will play in the SEC Tournament for the 16th time in program history. Vanderbilt won the first two SEC Tournament championships, in 1993 and 1994. The Commodores last won a game in the tournament in 2005.
Waiting in the first round will be Georgia, which defeated Vanderbilt 3-1 in Nashville last Friday. The Bulldogs (5-11-1, 4-7) won two of their final three, but lost to SEC champ Florida on Thursday night.
“It is one thing to be happy about getting in (to the SEC Tournament), but don’t be satisfied just because you are there,” Ambrose told the team after the game. “We earned our way there. We haven’t snuck into this. We belong there. We will prepare the same way we’ve prepared for every single game this year and that is with the view that we can win the game. We can win any game, against any opponent that we can face. We’re not going down there just happy to be a part of it. That is the biggest thing now is, ‘Hey, we’ve worked so hard to come this far, let’s not short change ourselves once we get down there.'”
