Aug. 12, 2015
Game Notes | Ambrose Interview | Myers Interview
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Right out of the gate, before the season has officially started, an SEC foe will greet Darren Ambrose in his first season as Vanderbilt’s head coach.
As odd as playing a conference rival this early in the season is, Ambrose welcomes the challenge of facing Alabama at 6 p.m. on Thursday at the VU Soccer/Lacrosse Complex in an exhibition game for both teams. The game, which will be broadcast on SEC Network +, won’t count toward the records or as a conference game for either team.
Ambrose, however, thinks the Crimson Tide are a needed test before Vanderbilt hosts Miami-Ohio in the season opener next Friday.
“For me, selfishly, I’m glad we’re playing them, a team in the SEC,” Ambrose said after practice on Wednesday. “It gives me an idea of what is in the league, what we’re up against, what’s the level like. So I think it is good for us, to be honest with you.”
Ambrose, the all-time winningest coach at Penn in 15 years, has been pleased with the effort from his team after just one week of preseason camp. The Commodores, coming off a 7-10-2 season, return 15 letterwinners and eight starters.
That group includes All-SEC forward and leading scorer Simone Charley (a three-time All-American in the triple jump). SEC All-Freshman midfielder Lydia Simmons also returns. Senior captain Erin Myers, senior defender Kelsey Tillman, junior defender Claire Anderson and sophomore goalkeeper Christiana Ogunsami (who made an SEC-high 113 saves) started all 19 games in 2014.
In addition, midfielder Lina Granados made the 23-player roster and represented Colombia in the Women’s World Cup in June in Canada. The Commodores also welcome eight newcomers, including six freshmen. ACC transfers defender Danae O’Halloran (North Carolina) and Kacy Scarpa (Florida State) could also see the field early and often.
“I think they are excited to play, like we all are, see us play against another colored jersey,” Ambrose said. “I think we got a lot done in the first week. I think we started out a little hesitant but there was a degree of, a little bit of figuring it out. There was a lack of confidence, maybe, trying to sort out who was who – new faces. They are all still trying to figure each other out… The last two, three days have been really very good.”
Vanderbilt leads the all-time series 11-5-4 against Alabama. But the Commodores have lost the last two against the Crimson Tide, including a 1-0 defeat in Nashville last year, and last picked up a victory in the series in 2010.
Alabama returns six starters from a team that went 10-7-3 and reached the SEC Tournament. The Crimson Tide will also have a new head coach at the helm. Wes Hart enters his first year after serving as an assistant coach at Florida State, which won the national championship in 2014. It will be a reunion on Thursday as Hart coached Scarpa at FSU the last two years. The Crimson Tide were picked to finish 12th in the SEC in a preseason coaches poll; Vanderbilt was projected to finish 13th.
While the outcome will have zero effect on the win-loss column, Ambrose asked his team on Wednesday to give their best effort and have “no regrets.”
“I told them today, if nothing else, you walk off the field, you got no regrets,” We can do a lot with effort. Any coach can do a lot with effort and commitment. All we are asking them to do is trust us, go out, do what they can do, let us fix things as they need fixing. But walk off the field knowing, hey, you gave everything you got for the program, for the team, for your teammates. And do yourself justice. That’s all.”