Sept. 4, 2014
Greene Interview | Tillman Interview | Ogunsami Interview
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Picking up consecutive wins for the first time in three years won’t suffice for the Vanderbilt soccer team.
The Commodores want to get on a winning roll  and that goal plans to get tested this weekend in Texas.
Vanderbilt heads to the Lone Star State for a pair of non-conference games against challenging Conference USA opponents. At 7 p.m. on Friday, the Commodores will play Rice in Houston. The next day they’ll bus the nearly five hours to Denton, Texas to face the University of North Texas at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
“It has been pretty consistent overall and I would expect that to continue,” coach Derek Greene said. “You don’t get to be standing at the end of the year if you don’t play consistently. You better bring your effort every day and make sure you are working hard because your best effort is never good enough. We’re going to have a big challenge this weekend to try to go 2-0 on the road.”
Vanderbilt (3-1) is off to its best start since the 2011 season thanks to a weekend sweep. Vanderbilt rallied late against Cincinnati at home for a 3-2 victory last Friday and stunned Memphis 2-1 on the road on Sunday for back-to-back wins for the first time in nearly three years.
The Commodores hope to keep the momentum this weekend against a pair of teams they’ve only met once before.
Just a year ago, Rice came to Nashville and picked up a 3-2 victory. North Texas and the Commodores only previous meeting came in 2000 and ended in a 3-0 victory for the Mean Green.
This season, Rice is off to a 2-1-1 start. Since losing their opener at Baylor, the Owls have tied Dayton, defeated Lamar and shocked SEC foe LSU on the road. The 1-0 victory against the Tigers in Baton Rouge caught Greene’s attention and has been mentioned several times during practice this week.
North Texas is 3-0 and has shut out all three opponents – Texas Southern, Oregon State and Lamar. The Mean Green are coming off a season in which they went 14-7-1 and reached the championship game of the Conference USA Tournament.
“They’ll pose the same challenges we had last weekend,” Greene said. “They’re two very good teams. They’re teams that could potentially be ranked coming up. We just have to battle it out and grind it out. All of our games, to be honest, have been very good tests for us and so far we’re doing well. But we have to take it on the road with a good attitude and make sure we’re ready to fight come Friday night.”
CIARROCCA HONORED
Freshman Colby Ciarrocca’s breakthrough weekend didn’t go unnoticed.
The 5-foot-8 forward from Montgomery, N.J., was named the SEC Freshman of the Week and the Tennessee Sportswriters Association’s Women’s Soccer Player of the Week after she scored four goals in two wins over the weekend.
Ciarrocca scored the game-tying goal and the game-winning goal  in overtime  to help the Commodores past Cincinnati for a 3-2 win on Friday night. On Sunday, she scored both goals for Vanderbilt in a 2-1 road victory over Memphis.
The high school All-American leads the team in points (eight), goals (four), game-winning goals (two) and shooting percentage (.571).
“It is something we were expecting and we expect her to get better,” Greene said. “She has been so opportunistic. As we’ve said about Colby before, one of the things that stands out about her is her work ethic… The exciting thing is her soccer is only going to get better. She still has her best days this year ahead of her.”
FRESHMAN STEPPING UP IN GOAL
Another freshman who has shown great promise is goalkeeper Christiana Ogunsami.
The Cherry Hill, N.J., native leads the Southeastern Conference with 19 saves and ranks in the top three in the league in saves per game (4.75) and save percentage (.760). The 5-foot-11 Ogunsami has started all four games of her career. She made a career-high seven saves against Cincinnati and followed with five saves at Memphis.
EXPERIENCED GROUP
The Commodores bring a wealth of experience for a team full of freshmen and sophomores, which count for 16 of the squad’s 30 players. Twenty-one letterwinners return from 2013, including nine starters. The trio of forward/defender Kelsey Tillman, defender Cherrelle Jarrett and midfielder Erin Myers (a team captain) started all 19 games.
SEC All-Freshman forward Simone Charley started 16 of 17 games before suffering a MCL sprain. Forward/midfielder Sasha Gray started 18 of 19 games. Midfielders Jamie Kator and Andie Lakin each made 16 starts. Defender Taylor Richardson made 14 starts. As a freshman, Olivia Liebman started 13 games in goal after Alexa Levick suffered an ACL injury.
In 2013, Vanderbilt scored 37 goals for its highest single-season scoring output since 2005. The Commodores also averaged 2.06 goals a game  their highest average in 13 years.
Forty-three percent of that scoring returns in 2014, including four players who scored multiple goals.
SEC PLAYERS TO WATCH
Three Commodores were tabbed as SEC preseason players to watch  sophomores Simone Charley and Sasha Gray and redshirt freshman Lydia Simmons.
Charley, from Hoover, Ala., was an All-SEC Freshman selection in 2013 and returns as the team’s top scorer after recording five goals along with dishing out five assists. Gray, a native of Nesconset, N.Y., had three goals and two assists. Simmons, a Londonderry, N.H., native, sat out 2013 as she recovered from a high school injury.
As a team, the Commodores were picked to finish 13th in the league by the SEC coaches. They finished ahead of Mississippi State, which VU defeated for its lone conference win of 2013.