Mississippi State soccer returned to winning ways on Sunday in Tuscaloosa, blanking a prolific Alabama squad in hostile territory to win 1-0.
The return of Ally Perry was important, and she combined with co-captain Zoe Main in the first half to create the only goal of the game. Main controlled the pinpoint pass and beat her defender before firing past the goalkeeper, showcasing her skill in front of goal to equal her scoring tally from last season.
There was another change in personnel from the 5-1 defeat to Vanderbilt last week, and a somewhat surprising one. Freshman goalkeeper Jenny Harrison made her first start between the sticks for MSU, recording eight saves against a flurry of chances from the Crimson Tide’s attacking line.
“To be honest, I was ready for this game,” Harrison said in her post-game SEC Network interview. “It’s a long way to come here and perform with my team, and my team did an amazing job today. I’m proud of them.”
Alabama’s record of 37 goals in 16 games spelled a potentially long night across the state border for MSU, especially after conceding five goals to Vanderbilt at home last week. Making a change at goalkeeper, and bringing in a freshman at that, was a bold decision but it paid off for head coach Nick Zimmerman.
“I just trusted my teammates and trusted my capacity,” Harrison said.
“It is really hard to win, period, and to do it against a very, very good team on the road says a lot about this group’s resilience and togetherness,” he said. “They were hard together. They were smart together. And ultimately, together they earned this result. We couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Harrison wasn’t the only one to make an impact defensively. Of Alabama’s 18 shots, only nine were on target. Defensively, Hannah Jibril and Naila Schoefberger both had to shed the loss last week as well to bounce back and earn a hard-fought win. The latter was responsible for stopping the only shot on goal that Harrison couldn’t get to, clearing a chance at the mouth of MSU’s goal in the 81st minute to preserve the advantage.
The win was also the 10th of the season, and moved the Bulldogs into fifth in the SEC standings. It made Nick Zimmerman the only first-year head coach so far this season to reach double-digit wins, and the best mark for any head coach’s debut season in program history at 10-4-1 with one game remaining in the regular season.
The Bulldogs host No. 19 Georgia at the MSU Soccer Field at 2 p.m. Sunday for the regular-season finale. The match presents not only an opportunity to end the regular season on a positive note, but also to overtake the SEC rivals in the standings ahead of the SEC Tournament in November.
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