Aug. 27, 2015
Game Notes | Simmons Interview | Gonzaga Live Stream | Seattle Live Stream
SPOKANE, Wash. – With the first weekend in the books, the Vanderbilt soccer team headed west to hopefully write a new chapter in a young 2015 season.
The Commodores’ non-conference schedule continues with a pair of games against teams from the state of Washington. Vanderbilt (0-2) plays at Gonzaga (0-0-1) at 7 p.m. (Central Standard Time) on Friday. The Commodores wrap up the trip with a 2 p.m. (CST) tilt against Seattle University (1-1) on Sunday.
Both games will be streamed online for free – click here for the Gonzaga link and here for the Seattle link.
The Commodores arrived in Spokane around 6:30 p.m. Central Standard Time, nearly 12 hours after leaving the McGugin Center at 7 a.m. on campus in Nashville and heading to the airport. The one-day trek took two flights (with a three-hour layover in Phoenix) and more than nine hours and more than 3,000 miles. The day wasn’t over when they reached their destination either, as the team practiced at Gonzaga on Thursday evening.
Vanderbilt is trying to bounce back from a tough start to the season after suffering a pair of 1-0 losses to Miami-Ohio and Cincinnati last weekend. Both teams should serve as formidable foes. Gonzaga won nine games last year and Seattle went 15-4-3, swept its conference regular-season and tournament titles and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION
The Commodores head to the Evergreen State for a pair of road games. Vanderbilt plays at Gonzaga on Friday night and caps off three straight road games against Seattle University on Sunday afternoon.
Gonzaga is coming off a 9-9-1 season and finished tied for fifth in the West Coast Conference with a 4-4-1 mark. The Bulldogs return five starters and 15 letterwinners. Gonzaga started off the season with a 1-1 tie against Nevada on Friday, scoring on an own goal by Nevada. The Commodores are 0-2 all-time against the Bulldogs, with the last meeting in 2012.
Seattle went 15-4-3 in 2014 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to South Carolina in penalty kicks. The Redhawks captured a share of the Western Athletic Conference regular-season championship and won the league tournament crown.
Seattle dropped its season opener to Washington State 3-1, but defeated Oregon in double overtime 1-0 on Sunday. The Redhawks are led by Natasha Howe, who scored 10 goals last year. Vanderbilt and Seattle have never met.
ANDERSON RETURNS HOME
This weekend’s road trip to Washington will serve as a homecoming for Claire Anderson.
The junior defender hails from Seattle and played at Lakeside School and was named a three-time All-Metro Mountain League selection by the Seattle Times. She has played in 33 games at Vanderbilt, starting 25.
GLIMPSE OF THE ‘DORES
Vanderbilt began its 29th women’s soccer season last weekend.
The Commodores return 15 letterwinners and eight starters from a team that went 7-10-2 overall and 2-7-2 in SEC play. Among those returning are All-SEC junior forward Simone Charley, who led the team with nine goals last year, and midfielder Lydia Simmons, who was named SEC All-Freshman. Goalkeeper Christiana Ogunsami also returns after starting all 19 games as a freshman and leading the SEC with 113 saves.
In addition to Ogunsami, senior captain Erin Myers, senior Kelsey Tillman and junior Claire Anderson started all 19 games in 2014. Myers, a midfielder/defender, has started all 58 games of her career.
The Commodores return 56 percent of last year’s goal scorers. Both goalkeepers are back, as Ogunsami and senior Shannon Morrish combined for six shutouts.
The squad welcomes eight newcomers. Six freshmen arrive, plus a pair of transfers from the ACC  defender Danae O’Halloran from North Carolina and midfielder Kacy Scarpa, who played for national champ Florida State. WEEKLY REPORT Vanderbilt dropped its first two games of the season to a pair of teams from Ohio.
The Commodores lost to Miami-Ohio 1-0 in its home opener on Friday, surrendering a goal in the 80th minute despite outshooting the Redhawks 22-8.
On Sunday in their first road game of the season at Cincinnati, they had just three shots and allowed the game-winning goal in the 67th minute.
AMBROSE ERA BEGINS
Darren Ambrose begins his first year at Vanderbilt as the sixth head coach in program history. He spent the last 15 years as head coach at Penn, where he was the winningest coach in program history with 148 wins. He also guided the Quakers to three NCAA Tournaments, three Ivy League championships, while never having a losing season.
The 44-year-old from England has been a coach for the last 20 years, serving on staffs as Florida State, Connecticut and Rhodes College. He is no stranger to Tennessee as he received his master’s degree from Memphis, starting his coaching career at Rhodes College and was active in youth soccer in Memphis, leading the Memphis FC ’81 girls team to a state title and the Dana Cup championship in Denmark in 1998.
DOUBLE THREAT
Simone Charley enters the second half of what has so far been a superb two-sport college career.
The 5-foot-8 forward from Hoover, Ala., leads active VU players with 14 career goals, including a team-high nine last year.
She accounted for seven of the team’s nine goals in league play and scored six goals in her last six games. She was named First Team All-SEC and All-South Region Second Team last year.
She showed glimpses of continuing her excellence with two goals in the team’s exhibition game against Alabama last week.
Charley also is a standout on the track as a three-time All-American. After finishing ninth in the triple jump as a freshman at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, she outdid herself as a sophomore. She placed fourth at the NCAA Indoor Championships and then reached the podium at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with a third-place finish in June. In the process, she leapt 44-3.25, breaking her own school record.
TASTING THE WORLD CUP
The Commodores were represented at the Women’s World Cup in June in Canada.
Redshirt junior Lina Granados made the 23-player roster for Colombia and traveled with the team during its four games. Colombia advanced out of pool play for the first time and fell to the United States, the eventual champ.
Granados hails from Ashburn, Va., but has dual citizenship as she was born in Bogota, Colombia. She has played for the Colombia Football Federation since she was 15, and has played in international tournaments three times. She helped the Colombia U-20 team win gold at the 2013 Bolivian Games in Peru.
OGUNSAMI BACK IN NET
Christiana Ogunsami returns in goal after a promising freshman campaign.
The 5-foot-11 keeper from Cherry Hill, N.J., started all 19 games in 2014. She made113 saves last year to lead the SEC and record the second-most stops in a single season in program history. She also tied the school record with 15 saves against No. 10 Texas A&M on Oct. 10. It was the most saves by a Vanderbilt keeper since Christy Barringer made 15 stops on Oct. 17, 1992.
Ogunsami spent the summer trying to fine-tune her game by working at The Keeper Institute in New Jersey with former U.S. Women’s National Team goalie Jillian Loyden.
MORRISH BEGINS NURSING SCHOOL
Senior goalkeeper Shannon Morrish will be juggling not only soccer and her final year of undergraduate studies this fall but also nursing school.
Morrish, a native of Bradenton, Fla., entered Vanderbilt University’s School of Nursing this week. She is pursuing a master’s degree in adult/gerontology acute care. She’ll be a registered nurse after the first year and complete the requirements to be certified as a nurse practitioner by May 2017.
SEC PRESEASON PLAYERS TO WATCH
Five Vanderbilt players were selected as preseason players to watch.
Junior forward Simone Charley (nine goals, three assists), redshirt sophomore midfielder Lydia Simmons (three assists), sophomore defender Cristina De Zeeuw (one assist), senior midfielder Erin Myers (one goal) and sophomore forward/midfielder Sasha Gray (one goal, one assist) were all chosen.