The Vanderbilt Commodores (5-0-1) took on the Lipscomb Bison (3-3-1) in their sixth game of the season Thursday evening. The Commodores have been red hot to start the season and had yet to concede a goal entering the contest. With two games left before their SEC season starts on September 18th, they looked to keep their momentum going in a game they undoubtedly expected to win.
The Commodores started the game on the front foot generating a couple of dangerous attacks in the opening exchanges before Raegan Kelley broke through in the seventh minute with a goal in tight following a cross from Abena Aidoo, her third goal in six games.
“I’m doing individual shooting in practice so it’s really fun to see that come out in the games,” Kelley said after the game.
They continued to press on after the opening goal and, after 20 minutes, were outshooting the Bison 4-2.
The Bison slowly worked their way back into it, however, and were able to sustain some pressure through the middle of the half, but they failed to produce anything that really troubled junior goalkeeper Kate Devine. Vanderbilt almost broke through again in the 17th minute, but senior Alex Kerr had her shot cleared off the line by one of the Bison back four. A few minutes later sophomore Rachel Deresky beat her defender for pace and slid in a cross but Brooke VanDyck missed just wide.
The game started to settle down, as both coaches used their substitutes and the pace slowed as the Commodores continued to extend their shutout streak, which reached 495 minutes at the end of the half. Center-back pairing Maya Antoine and Ella Shamburger held the Bison to just two shots on goal from outside of the box, both of which Devine caught comfortably.
The Commodores got kicked in the teeth to start the second half, as a 47th-minute corner from Kale’a Perry went off the hand of Devine and straight to Logan McFadden, who nudged it across the line to tie the game at one, ending the shutout streak at 497 minutes, and bringing a rather large Lipscomb student section back to life. For the next 15 minutes, Lipscomb stayed on the front foot but didn’t generate any major chances. Tina Bruni did pick up a yellow preventing a transition opportunity.
The Commodores abandoned the possession they had been playing in the first half and resorted to a much more direct style after getting scored on. But, they began to settle back down in the latter part of the second half. Neither team recorded a shot on goal in the 30 minutes following the Bison equalizer, and it looked like both teams were gearing it in and preparing for overtime. No one wanted to make a mistake that cost their team the game.
Shamburger finally recorded a shot on goal in the 80th minute from a cross that Bison GK CJ Graham tipped over the net. Kelley picked up a yellow card in the 87th, and the Commodores held their breath as the ball bounced around on another corner, but nothing came of it, and the game ended in a tie at 1-1.
Obviously, the Commodores would prefer to be perfect, but in a long season, there is going to be some adversity.
Head coach Darren Ambrose lamented the missed chances in the first half.
“When you don’t take your chances against teams like that who are well coached and fight they are going to stay in games,” he said afterward.
Kelley remained confident that they would rebound in the rest of the season, saying they would use this game as motivation to “come in to practice harder and try to get better the next day.” Ambrose echoed this sentiment.
“It shows we’ve got some work to do…this start to the season we’ve had is great, but we’ve now got something we can go back to the drawing board and say, ‘we really need to pay attention to these things,’” Ambrose said. “Adversity to me means life-changing, difficult circumstances, we just tied a game.”
The Commodores will look to get back to their winning ways on Sunday, Sept. 11, as they take on Middle Tennessee State at 5 p.m. CDT.
