STARKVILLE — MSU Soccer Field got unusually quiet in the 74th minute after New Mexico State forward Loma McNeese slotted home the equalizer, making it a 1-1 game.
The crowd of over 1,200 fans had been wild and raucous all Friday afternoon as Mississippi State played in just its second NCAA tournament game ever, a first-round matchup against the Aggies.
Now, they had to help the Bulldogs score a late game-winner to make history with its first-ever NCAA tournament win.
MSU was more than familiar with scoring late goals Friday, having taken a 1-0 lead in the final minute of the first half, so why not double up on the dramatics?
Those dramatics came from sophomore defender Rylie Combs, heading in her first collegiate goal — the biggest goal in program history — off an 88th-minute corner as MSU advanced to the second round with a 2-1 victory.
“We needed this win,” Combs said. “Our team has worked so hard all year, and I just felt like I owed the team one. I really did this for them. I didn’t do it for myself.”
The selflessness of Mississippi State (12-5-4) has shined through the entire season and it was on full display on Friday, but what was even bigger was the constant pressure that the Bulldogs got on NMSU.
Coming in, the Aggies, making their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance, had conceded just 15 goals in 20 games, tied for 39th in the country in goals against average.
That didn’t matter to the Bulldogs, who controlled 56 percent of possession overall and recorded 16 shots, eight of them on goal.
Thirteen of those 16 shots came in the second half as MSU got things figured out during halftime and came out swinging in the final 45 minutes of play.
“They were strong and fast and we had to adjust to that,” midfielder Alivia Buxton said. “I think we were able to regroup ourselves and started trying new things, changing the point of attack, and it opened more things up so we could get better attacks on goal.”
Buxton scored the opening goal of the match for MSU in the 45th minute, her first goal since the first match of the season against FIU, as Haley McWhirter picked her out in the box and put in a cross that the freshman put in the back of the net.
Like Mississippi State, New Mexico State was much more active offensively in the second half and caught the Bulldogs sleeping on defense for the equalizer.
Even with the score tied at 1-1, with how MSU was playing, something had to give. Give, it did, sending MSU Soccer Field into a frenzy.
“I wanted to thank the fans for coming out tonight,” head coach James Armstrong said. “Unbelievable turnout, great, loud crowd.”
A point of note that went under the radar once the final whistle sounded was the return of Bulldogs starting goalkeeper Maddy Anderson.
Anderson had been sidelined since Oct. 6 after suffering a lower leg injury early in the South Carolina match, as Mac Titus had stepped up in her place.
Through a month of recovery, Anderson was good to go and picked up where she left off earlier in the season and where Titus left off after the Southeastern Conference tournament.
As MSU advances to the second round, the goalkeeper battle is something to keep an eye on and it’s a good problem for the Bulldogs to have.
Mississippi State will face Memphis — an upset winner over No. 2-seeded Saint Louis — in the next round Friday in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
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