Women's Soccer Week That Was: Week 8
10/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Oct. 6, 2008
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - For the second week in a row the Alabama soccer team split its weekend series. The Crimson Tide earned its seventh win of the season by defeating Mississippi State on Friday night, while suffering its first home loss of the season to Mississippi Sunday afternoon. With the 1-0 shutout over the Bulldogs on Friday and the 2-1 defeat by the Rebels on Sunday, Alabama moves to 7-4-1 on the season and 2-2-0 in SEC play.
Led by a strong defensive performance, the Crimson Tide earned its sixth consecutive home shutout of the season Friday night. Allowing only ten shots the entire game, goalkeeper Kara Gudmens was rarely tested and finished the game with only one save. The lone goal of the evening came off of a corner kick that was deflected into the net by one of Mississippi State's own players. Nonetheless, it was enough to earn three points for Alabama.
"We are pleased overall with how we started the game Friday night," Alabama head coach Todd Bramble said. "We put enough pressure on them to create a goal and we were solid defensively, once again we got a shutout. Overall, it was a good, solid SEC win for us. We took care of business at home."
Sunday afternoon, the Crimson Tide allowed its first goal at home of the season, as Ole Miss came out strong by scoring in the first 25 seconds. Scoring once more before the half, the Rebels appeared to have a comfortable lead, but Alabama answered with a quick goal to begin the second half.
Freshman Shannon Lathrop tallied her first career goal just two minutes into the second half. Kelsey King handed out her team-leading fourth assist of the season. Although the Tide came out on the losing end Sunday, Bramble saw positives that can be taken away from the loss.
"We are extremely disappointed that we didn't at least come back and tie the game up," Bramble said. "But we showed a level of mental toughness on a fitness level, the way we battled back and the way they executed a game plan and tried to come from behind while keeping their composure. I have to be pleased with all of those areas and I think that's something we can build on and draw from if we find ourselves in that situation later on in the season."
The Crimson Tide went through a normal week of practice with two afternoon training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday, and a morning session on Wednesday. After an intense practice on Tuesday, the workload was lightened to prepare for the weekend.
"The season is somewhat physical and there are times when the training sessions can be a little bit lighter physically or emotionally," Bramble said. "We have to change things up to keep it fresh for the players, to keep them motivated to come out every day, week-in and week-out. I think it paid off, because those were two games that required us to put a lot of energy into this past weekend. We had all the energy we needed Friday night and then we had the most energy we've ever seen from our team in the second half on Sunday afternoon."
Alabama will hit the road this weekend for two SEC matchups. The Crimson Tide will face off against the Arkansas Razorbacks on Friday, Oct. 10 at 7:00 p.m. at Lady Back Field. UA will then play LSU on Sunday, Oct. 12 at 1:00 p.m. at the LSU Soccer Complex.
