Sept. 17, 2015
NASHVILLE, Tenn.  Darren Ambrose has seen SEC play firsthand. Now Vanderbilt’s first-year soccer coach will get to experience life on the road in one of the country’s toughest conferences.
And the Commodores’ first SEC road test of 2015 will mean venturing into a hostile environment.
Vanderbilt travels to No. 5 Texas A&M on Friday for a 6 p.m. (CST) tilt against the Aggies in College Station, Texas. The game will be nationally televised on the SEC Network. The Commodores (4-3-1, 1-0 SEC) haven’t played this high of a ranked opponent since traveling to No. 4 Oklahoma State on Aug. 24, 2012.
Texas A&M is off to a 7-1 start and 1-0 in league play after knocking off No. 10 Florida on the road last week. The Aggies have won nine straight home games at Ellis Field, where they rank third in attendance in Division I with 3,291 fans a game.
“We have our hands full,” said Ambrose, who played Texas A&M in College Station as an assistant coach with Florida State in 1999. “Our kids know it. I know it. I’ve been honest. The girls know that. I can say it as it is. I think it is helpful. But I am also very confident that we have enough in us to go down and get a result down there. We have to play very well. We all know that. We have to play well and force them into mistakes and take advantage of the opportunities we do create… I feel like we are in a good spot. We’re confident and I think we all believe in what we’re going down there trying to do.”
The Commodores are coming off a four-game homestand in which they went 3-0-1 for their longest stretch without a loss since 2009. Vanderbilt, which won its SEC opener last Friday against Mississippi State, will make a short trip to College Station.
The team will be back in Nashville late Friday night as they host Evansville at 4 p.m. on Sunday at the VU Soccer/Lacrosse Complex. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network + and the Commodores are promoting International Day in conjunction with Vanderbilt’s International Students and Scholar Services.
But first, the ‘Dores will face a Texas A&M team that swept the SEC regular-season and tournament championships last year and reached the Final Four. The Aggies, however, were picked to finish second in the league behind Florida after graduating nine starters. A freshman and sophomore laden bunch has responded fast out of the gate, though, with its only loss to defending national champ Florida State.
“I think A&M has a big chip on their shoulder this year,” Ambrose said. “I think the chip is when they graduated nine of their starting 11 no one thought they were going to be any good. I think they’ve made that their rally cry and I think they are out to prove a point. And, so far, to their credit, they’ve proven it. Obviously, you win at (No. 10) Florida, technically the top two teams in the conference – and you’ve just come out on top on the road.”
SCOUTING THE COMPETITION
The Aggies return just three starters from the team that went to the Final Four and swept the SEC regular-season and tournament championships a year ago. Even so, the Aggies have reloaded with nine freshmen and one transfer. A&M is off to a 7-1 start, with a 1-0 mark in SEC play after defeating No. 10 Florida 2-1 on the road last Thursday.
The Aggies’ top four scorers are freshmen and sophomores, led by six goals from sophomore Haley Pounds. A&M leads the SEC with 180 shots (22.5 per game) and ranks second with 23 goals (2.88 per game). In goal, Taylor Saucier has allowed eight goals and made 21 saves. Vanderbilt is 2-5 all-time against A&M, having lost the last five meetings.
Evansville and Vanderbilt last met in 1997, and the Commodores are 4-0 in the series. The Purple Aces are 2-5-1 this season, with seven games being decided by one goal. They are led by junior Bronwyn Boswell’s three goals and two assists.
WEEKLY REPORT
Vanderbilt completed a four-game homestand with a 2-1 victory over Mississippi State on Friday in the SEC opener and a 1-1 tie over High Point on Sunday.
Against Mississippi State, the Commodores won their SEC opener for the first time since 2005. Lydia Simmons scored in the fourth minute to open the scoring for VU. After the Bulldogs tied the game in the first half, Simone Charley scored the game-winner in the 47th minute off an assist from Jamie Kator. Christiana Ogunsami made four saves in goal.
On Sunday against High Point, Vanderbilt once again scored first. Simmons led the way again with her third goal of the season in the 10th minute as she hooked in a corner kick from the right side. It was her third career goal  all three coming in the last four games. But the Commodores allowed a goal in the 32nd minute. That would be all the scoring for the game. The Commodores outshot the Panthers 21-7, but settled for their first tie of the season.
Even with the tie, this is Vanderbilt’s longest stretch without a loss (four games) since 2009.
GLIMPSE OF THE ‘DORES
Vanderbilt, in its 29th women’s soccer season, returns 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.
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.
With his second Vanderbilt win over Dartmouth on Sept. 4, he picked up his 150th career victory.
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.
SIM CITY
Simone Charley enters the second half of what has so far been a superb two-sport college career. The 5-foot-8 junior forward from Hoover, Ala., leads active VU players with 16 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 has scored a team-high three goals this season, including game-winners against Gonzaga and Mississippi State.
Charley also is a standout on the track as a three-time All-American. 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.
SIMMONS EMERGES AS SCORING THREAT
Midfielder Lydia Simmons earned SEC All-Freshman honors last year for her work as a field general and as the team’s top distributor with three assists. But this year she has also emerged as a scoring threat.
Simmons has scored the first three goals of her career in the last four games and leads the team with seven points. All three have come from at least 18 yards out.
The redshirt sophomore from Londonderry, N.H., booted her first career goal in a 1-0 victory against Dartmouth on Sept. 4. She followed up the next weekend with another goal from just outside the box in a 2-1 victory over Mississippi State. On Sunday, she tied Simone Charley for the team lead with her third goal of the season as she hooked in a corner kick in a 1-1 tie against High Point.
TASTING THE WORLD CUP
Redshirt junior Lina Granados made the 23-player roster for Colombia at the Women’s World Cup in June in Canada 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 has made her first five career starts in the last five games.
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 on Aug. 17. 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.
NEW FACES MAKE DEBUTS
Transfers Danae O’Halloran (North Carolina) and Kacy Scarpa (Florida State) have started all eight games. In addition, transfer Carley Bogan (William & Mary) and freshmen Kelsey Carrier, Maggie Clemmons, Megan Henry and Hannah Menard have made their VU debuts.