Commodores Fall to Georgia 2-1

Commodores Fall to Georgia 2-1

10/16/2005

Nashville — The No. 21 Vanderbilt women’s soccer team dropped a 2-1 decision to Georgia Sunday afternoon at the Vanderbilt Soccer Complex. The Commodores (13-3, 6-2), who knocked off No. 13 Tennessee Friday night to extend a home-unbeaten streak to 17 games, lost their first contest at home since Oct. 3, 2003, as the Bulldogs (10-4-2, 4-3-1) kept their three-game unbeaten streak alive.

In only the seventh minute Georgia got on the board when Cortni Joyner fired a cross from just inside the keeper box along the end line. He pass deflected off of a Vanderbilt defender and the misdirection eluded VU junior goalkeeper Tyler Griffin (Charlotte, N.C.) for a goal.

“All the credit goes to Georgia today,” said VU head coach Ronnie Coveleskie Hill. “They are an organized team and they are a focused team. They scored two goals on ten shots today, and that’s pretty impressive.”

UGA was outshot by Vanderbilt 18-10, but the Bulldogs had seven on goal to Vanderbilt’s six. Georgia also posted two more fouls than VU in a very physical game, 19-17. Six yellow cards were issued, two to Vanderbilt and four to Georgia, including two to UGA midfielder Joni Vickers, who was ejected from the contest with 1:33 remaining in the game.

“I think we were unable to match their intensity today and so we resorted to fouling instead,” Hill said. “We did a better job in the second half, but unfortunately I think some of our players were more focused on the battle with the other players not on playing good soccer. You cannot be in the upper-echelon of NCAA teams if you can come to play on Friday but not on Sunday. You have to put two good games together and we didn’t do that.”

Georgia took a 2-0 lead in the 63^rd minute when Joyner crossed the ball to within a couple yards of the front of the net and Ali Williams was able to knock it past a diving Griffin. Griffin did post five saves including a couple one-on-one chances when Georgia mounted quick-counter attacks following lengthy Vanderbilt possessions.

With around 20 minutes to go, Hill dropped out of her normal 3-3-4 to put more offensive players in the game, and it seemed to help the Commodore attack. In the 76^th minute junior Lea Lafield (Dallas, Texas) passed the ball to freshman Jessica Lenze (Peachtree City, Ga.) along the right side of the field where she maneuvered around a defender and crossed over a slew of players to the far post and senior Kelci Hegg (Charlotte, N.C.) put her head down to score the lone Commodore goal.

Vanderbilt kept the pressure on the Bulldogs’ defense, firing four more shots in the final 13 minutes but UGA goalkeeper Lauren Church was up to the task recording three saves to keep the Commodores from tying up the game.

Vanderbilt, who slipped behind Tennessee (9-5-1, 7-1 SEC) to second-place in the SEC East only one game after reclaiming a tie for first, must now prepare for a visit by Mississippi St. (3-9-3, 2-6-0 SEC) this Friday. The game, which begins at 7 p.m. at the Vanderbilt Soccer Complex, is the second to last home-game and third to last regular-season game this year. Sunday the Commodores will travel to face Ole Miss (13-3, 7-1 SEC), who defeated No. 11 Florida (10-4-1, 5-2-1) 1-0.