Nov. 8, 2017
By Zac Ellis
VUCommodores.com
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The hallways of Vanderbilt’s football facility were quiet on Monday afternoon when cheers suddenly erupted from the team auditorium at the McGugin Center. The Commodores’ women’s soccer team had commandeered the team room to stream the NCAA tournament selection show, inviting dozens of Vanderbilt athletic staffers to join in.
Sections of the bracket came and went as Vanderbilt – fresh off a semifinal appearance in the SEC tournament – waited with bated breath. Then, at 3:37 p.m. central time, the Dores got their wish: Vanderbilt donned its dancin’ shoes in the form of a first-round match against 4-seed Ohio State. The two teams square off at 5 p.m. Friday in Columbus.
Euphoria engulfed the gathered crowd when Vanderbilt’s name popped on the screen. But for three Commodore seniors in attendance, the moment meant a little bit more.
“At first, I felt nauseous,” defender Cristina De Zeeuw said, “but when I saw our name, I could’ve cried.”
“Goosebumps,” midfielder Lydia Simmons said.
“It was unreal seeing it happen,” forward Simone Charley said. “At one point, all three of us looked at each other like, oh my gosh.”
Vanderbilt is tournament-bound for the first time under third-year head coach Darren Ambrose and first time overall since 2006. A seven-member senior class has played a key role in the program’s rise, but Charley, De Zeeuw and Simmons have been on campus the longest of any Commodores. That trio fought through early seasons without much semblance of success in the SEC.
On Monday, Ambrose was heartened as he watched his three most veteran student-athletes punch their NCAA tournament tickets, a first for their their careers.
“The reason those three are near and dear to me is they embrace the idea of doing more and working harder,” Ambrose said. “They wanted to win. They wanted to be successful. It’s only because they went through those first couple of years, seeing how hard you have to work to be good, that we’ve become successful this year.”
Charley and Simmons arrived at Vanderbilt in 2013, the latter redshirting during a season in which Vanderbilt won just one SEC game en route to a 4-12-3 overall record. De Zeeuw landed on campus as a freshman in 2014, when the Commodores improved to 2-7-2 in the SEC and went 7-10-2 overall. Vanderbilt failed to clinch a spot in the SEC tournament in either year.
Then Vanderbilt hired Ambrose ahead of the 2015 season. The program he inherited had not won more than two conference games since 2010 and had not had a winning season since 2009. Perhaps most striking, Ambrose sensed a lethargic attitude permeating the Commodores’ locker room. That led to a dramatic overall in team culture, with Ambrose routinely pushing his new roster to its limits with on- and off-field expectations.
“For me, it was the only way to do it,” Ambrose said. “You had a group that was very fractured, and soccer didn’t seem that important in the grand scheme of things. It was something they did, but it wasn’t a lifestyle.”
The Commodores were unaccustomed to their new coach’s tough love.
“The first spring he was here, it was not easy in any way, shape or form, mentally or physically,” De Zeeuw said. “It was probably the hardest thing this team has ever gone through.”
Added Simmons: “Sometimes you’re not comfortable with change. You’re asking, why is he doing this? Why is he being so hard on us? We’re coming out of practice like, ‘Oh my gosh, are we going to make it?'”
Amid transformation, the wins began to pile up for Vanderbilt. The Dores finished 9-8-4 in 2015 with a 4-4-3 record in SEC play, including a 2-1 road overtime win against No. 8 South Carolina and a 1-0 road victory over No. 12 Ole Miss. They reached the SEC tournament for the first time in five seasons and claimed their first tournament victory since 2005 with a 2-1 win over Georgia. Vanderbilt’s season culminated in tight 2-1 loss to No. 5 Florida in the SEC quarterfinals.
The Commodores’ seniors were witnessing the fruits of Ambrose’s vision for the program.
“Once the belief happens,” Simmons said, “it’s like a snowball.”
That momentum continued into 2016, when Vanderbilt barreled into the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament as part of a 9-9-1 campaign. This season the Dores reached the SEC tournament for the third straight year, and they have improved their conference record in each of Ambrose’s three stints in Nashville. In 2017, Vanderbilt won its most games (12) since 2005, most SEC games (six) since 2006 and finished fourth in the conference, its highest finish since the SEC erased divisions in 2009.
Vanderbilt’s most veteran trio helped made sure their final season didn’t fall to wayside. The Commodores fell to 3-3-0 overall following a 1-0 loss to Rhode Island on Sept. 3. In that moment, Ambrose says he was skeptical of his team’s mettle. But Vanderbilt rebounded to reach the NCAA tournament and cement one of its best seasons in more than a decade.
“Me and Lyd were talking about it the other day, how crazy the difference is here,” Charley said. “Our freshman year, we were 1-9 in the SEC. Now, our freshmen see that and they’re like, are you serious? Freshmen come in now expecting to win. They’re not thinking otherwise.”
Vanderbilt hopes to keep it season rolling against 4-seed Ohio State on Friday. When the first-round matchup was revealed on Monday, certain Commodore seniors noticed a surprised look on their younger teammates’ faces. Is an NCAA tournament berth that big a deal at Vanderbilt, they asked?
“We were like, ‘You guys have no idea,'” Simmons said. “Seeing the growth firsthand, it’s been eye-opening.”
Zac Ellis is the Writer and Digital Media Editor for Vanderbilt Athletics.
