STARKVILLE — Different approaches, one objective.

Whether it is “control the controllables” or “stay in the moment,” the Mississippi State and University of Mississippi women’s soccer teams know their game at 7 p.m. Friday (SportSouth) in Oxford will be doubly significant.

Not only will the match determine who gets to take home the Magnolia Cup, which is awarded to the winner of the annual rivalry game, but it also will play an important role in determining the eighth and final seed to the Southeastern Conference tournament.

The University of Alabama (11 points), MSU (10 points), and Ole Miss (nine points) are in a battle to decide which team will secure the final spot in the league tournament Nov. 2-6 in Orange Beach, Ala.

Alabama will earn the final spot if it beats Auburn at 7 p.m. Friday. The Crimson Tide (8-7-3, 3-5-2 SEC) also will move on if they tie Auburn and MSU (6-9-3, 3-6-1) and Ole Miss (7-10-1, 3-7) tie. A tie or a loss by Alabama will open the door for MSU or Ole Miss to continue their seasons.

A win by MSU and a loss by Alabama will help the Bulldogs clinch the eighth seed, and its first trip to the SEC tournament since 2004. MSU also will advance with a tie if Alabama loses (better goal differential in league games) and a win if Alabama ties.

Ole Miss needs to beat MSU and to have Alabama lose or tie to advance. It also has a better goal differential against Alabama if both teams are tied.

On Sunday, MSU won 2-1 at Vanderbilt University to rebound from a 2-0 loss to the University of Kentucky last Thursday. Coach Neil Macdonald said the Bulldogs reasserted their aggressiveness against the Commodores in a must-win situation. He feels MSU will need a similar mind-set Friday night against Ole Miss.

“They stuck to the game plan very well against Vandy and they played well,” Macdonald said. “We pressed the ball in areas of the field that we needed to, and the first goal came off the press. I am proud of them again that they rose to the occasion.”

Macdonald felt the Bulldogs came out a little “flat” in their final home game of the season. He believes the players relieved they didn’t play to their potential against Kentucky, which helped them regroup for to that juncture was the biggest game of the season.

Macdonald said the team will talk about “controlling the controllables” this week in practice and won’t worry about what happens in the Alabama-Auburn match.

“It is just about focusing on us and what we do well,” Macdonald said. “I think if we do that we’ll be just fine.”

Macdonald said MSU will stick to its strengths — being disciplined defensively, pressing the ball in key areas on the field, and counterattacking with speed. He feels the team has been dangerous when it has followed that strategy. He doesn’t think there are any magic words he can say this week in preparation to drive home the importance of playing that way against Ole Miss.

“We know when we play well we can beat anybody, so we have to be confident,” Macdonald said. ”

Ole Miss is coming off a 2-1 overtime victory against the University of Kentucky on Sunday. The win was the second in as many games for the Rebels (7-10-1, 3-7). Coach Matthew Mott said the team regrouped following a loss to South Carolina on Oct. 16 and set winning the final three-game “tournament” to end the regular season as a goal that would help it continue its season. Now he said the players have to put all of that behind them and re-focus on “staying in the moment” and beating MSU.

“When we realized it was still possible (to reach the postseason), I think we really embraced it and have come out and played really well,” Mott said. “It also helped getting (sophomore defender/midfielder) Raffy (Rafaelle Souza) back in the lineup. We talked about it being an 11-game conference season not it being an eight-game conference season, and that those games are over and the focus is on these three. That is the only thing we can control.”

Souza, the team’s leading scorer (nine goals, seven assists, 25 points), played in a 4-3 overtime loss to the University of Tennessee on Oct. 7. But she missed the next three matches against Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina, all shutout losses. Mott said Souza is as close to 100 percent as she has been in a while. He said she is in the 90-percent range and that she is moving well.

Mott said Ole Miss played its best game of the season in a 3-0 victory against Vanderbilt on Oct. 20. He said the Rebels then validated that performance with another strong outing against Kentucky. He said he believed Ole Miss would be able to erase the disappointment of winning only one of its first eight SEC games, and credited the team’s six seniors for being a driving force behind the Rebels’ resurgence.

Senior captain Meredith Snow has been at the center of that flurry. Named SEC Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, Snow has been a dominant defender. She also scored a goal to help ice the game against Vanderbilt.

“She is one of the best defenders in the conference, which makes her one of the best in the country,” Mott said.

Mott hopes Snow will play a key role anchoring a defense that will have to be ready to defend the quick counterattacks from a MSU team that will try to remain organized against Ole Miss’ possession attack.

“They have three really dangerous front-runners, so we have to be prepared to defend their attack and we have to get at their back line and get into dangerous positions,” Mott said. “We have to be clinical in our finishing and don’t give up a ton of chances.”

Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.