Lady Tigers Drop Opener of Rebel Classic

Friday, September 5

Oxford, Miss.

4:30 PM

University of Memphis

1-2-1

Auburn University

4-1-0

Memphis

Auburn

Sep 05, 2014 | Women's Soccer

Box Score

Sept. 5, 2014

Box Score

Oxford, Miss. - The Lady Tigers struggles continued as they lost 3-0 to Auburn in the first game of the Rebel Classic on Friday afternoon.

Like the game against Vanderbilt, the Lady Tigers (1-2-1) fell behind early and were unable to recover. Auburn (3-1) scored its first in the 17th minute. Auburn earned a free-kick near midfield and Haley Gerken played it in to Kristen Dobson, whose header found a hole and put the Tigers up 1-0.

"That's the game of soccer," Head coach Brooks Monaghan said. "Fair enough, we gave up the first goal. You're never happy, but I thought we recovered well. The problem is that they scored off of a mistake. How they scored, we have talked about preventing it. It was off of a set piece. It never makes you happy when you address your team, they lose a little focus and then they get scored on. That was a tough one, but we didn't put our heads down and we continued to play. We got some momentum back."

Although Memphis would keep Auburn from adding a second in the first half, the Lady Tigers could not find a way to make an impact offensively. Both teams were at a stalemate with the defenses not allowing a good look either way. It wasn't until the 24th minute that Kaitlyn Atkins recorded the lone shot of the half for the Lady Tigers.

Memphis came out with more fire at the beginning of the second half, as right away Valerie Sanderson took the ball down and fired just high. Less than a minute later, The Lady Tigers earned a corner, which resulted in an Emily Adamic header going wide.

Atkins was next to record a shot, forcing goalkeeper Alyse Scott to make a save in the 49th minute. It looked as if the Lady Tigers were headed toward an equalizing goal until a turnover in the Memphis box allowed Auburn's Ellie Leek to go one-on-one with Maryse Bard-Martel.

In seconds the game changed from the Lady Tigers starting to force their will, to the Lady Tigers trying to find a way to come back from two goals down.

"We got to the second half and we were flying," Monaghan said. "We got a breakaway in the first minute of the half and were unfortunate not to score and tie it up. And we were playing really well. And then we made a massive mistake in the back and it led to goal two. I don't want to take anything away from Auburn, they're a good team, but it is hard when we keep making these mistakes. These mistakes are killing us. We made a big mistake last game, and we got punished for it. We made two massive mistakes this game, and we got punished for it."

Minutes later, it would get worse. Nugene Nugent recorded a shot on target, but Auburn started a counter attack, which ended with Courtney Schell scoring from 35 yards with a shot that flew into the top near corner.

Memphis finished with eight shots, six of which came in the second half. Auburn had only three more shots, but had six on target, compared to the three the Lady Tigers had.

The Lady Tigers have a day break before facing Ole Miss in the finale of the Rebel Classic.

"How you rebound is you let it burn," Monaghan said. "You let it remain in your mind and fuel you. You let it fuel the fire. Our hope is that every single kid is licking their chops. Anytime you lose a game like this, you want to prove yourself."

Sunday's game kicks off at 7:00 p.m. at the Ole Miss Soccer Complex.