STARKVILLE — Mississippi State soccer suffered a hammer blow at the hands of No. 21 Vanderbilt on Thursday night. The Commodores came out swinging against the visitors, finding the net four times in the first half to stun the Starkville spectators into silence.

The Bulldogs (9-4-1, 4-3-1 SEC) were contenders to retain their SEC regular-season crown just two weeks ago, but a 5-1 home defeat to Vandy is the latest in a losing skid that has seen the team slide down the standings.

The Commodores, a ranked opponent with plenty of seasoned experience, was never going to be an easy task for MSU. The ability to press and possess combats the Bulldogs’ own possession-based style, and they expected a tough one, even if not to the tune that would play out.

“Vandy is really good, let’s not take anything away from them,” MSU head coach Nick Zimmerman said. “That’s a team with a lot of the same players that went on last year and beat Florida State. They returned a ton of players and we thought going in they were playing the best football in the conference.”

It was the first time MSU had conceded five or more goals since a 6-1 loss to Arkansas in 2019, and the first time doing so in Starkville since a 5-2 loss to the Razorbacks in 2016.

“Credit to (Vanderbilt), they were fantastic tonight,” Zimmerman continued. “I thought the second half we changed shape. We had some good moments, so this is good for us. As a young team, to play against that caliber, but also know that when we don’t do the little things at times, we’re going to get punished.”

The young Bulldog group conceded twice in the opening 15 minutes, and stumbled in their effort to stand back up.

Zimmerman said that it wasn’t easy to speak to a locker room that was down 4-0 after one half, but urged his team to grow into the game, and to fight back with a new gameplan. It worked, and MSU was on the board with a goal from Kyra Taylor just five minutes into the second half. Direct play from Chelsea Wagner and Adia Symmonds did well to advance the ball, and the Bulldogs had more chances to make it a contest again, but failed to capitalize.

“I felt we were off tonight, and sometimes that’s just how it is,” Zimmerman said. “Our passes weren’t as sharp, we had players open and missed by a yard or two, and at 2-0 down in complete possession, we make a bad decision, so maybe just playing a simple pass, and like I said, they’ll punish you. We’ll look at the film and have to reflect on it and then flush it, because now we go to a really good Alabama team on Sunday and then finish with Georgia.”

The first-year Bulldogs head coach has made a point to approach every game as an opportunity to learn and grow for his young group. More than half of the roster are freshmen or sophomores, and playing without suspended senior forward and captain Ally Perry meant that one more young player would have to step up.

The result was shocking, and Zimmerman approached it with a sense of practicality. His team has hit a rough patch against teams that you can’t afford to make mistakes against, and now they have to learn and grow again. That’s how life is in the SEC.

“You start out 9-1-1, and everyone is like, ‘Oh, it’s just going to happen again,’” he said. “This group, we knew we were going to hit adversity, and quite frankly, probably thought it was going to happen sooner than it did. Our losses are to a Top-10 Arkansas team on the road, another Top-25 team in Vandy, Florida right now is unbeaten in five games. It’s not like going out and losing games to teams you shouldn’t. Obviously, playing against really good competition, this is a gauntlet of a conference, and that’s why kids want to come here and play in these big games.”