Tennessee soccer faces Xavier in NCAA Tournament for 2nd consecutive year
In the first round of last season’s NCAA tournament, Tennessee soccer lost 4-1 to Xavier in extra time at home.
This year, the Lady Vols (8-6-4, 3-4-3 SEC) head on the road to take on Xavier (14-3-4, 6-0-4 Big East), and Tennessee feels that they owe the Musketeers after how they were eliminated last year.
“We’re all disappointed in that result and especially the last 20 minutes,” Tennessee head coach Joe Kirt said. “There were certainly moments in the game where we could have been better and had chances to win the game and didn’t.”
Xavier’s conference record allowed them to win the Big East regular season championship, but the Musketeers lost to Georgetown in the Big East championship game. Samantha Wiehe and Shelby Sallee each scored seven goals for Xavier this season, leading the team. Neither were part of the Xavier team that came to Knoxville last year.
Even though some of the players are different, Kirt still believes that there is enough consistency for last season’s game to make an impact.
“Their style is the same,” Kirt said. “They’ve got a lot of personnel that are different. A couple of familiar players, but this is a new team in a lot of ways from an individual perspective.”
Tennessee’s last game was on Oct. 29 when they lost to Auburn 2-1. The game came at the end of a run of games in a short time frame, and the longer break after that game has proved valuable.
The break has been especially valuable to Kameron Simmonds, who has used the time to recover from a long season, which included appearances with the Jamaican national team.
“It’s been a long six or seven months for her,” Kirt said. “She’s in a good place now. She’s ready and excited and capable of being dangerous every time she’s on the ball. She’s got some confidence back after scoring a couple goals.”
In their last two games, the Lady Vols have played goalkeeper Ally Zazzara for the full 90 minutes. Zazzara kept a clean sheet against Vanderbilt before allowing two goals in the first-round game against Auburn.
Because of the relative success, Kirt believes that Tennessee will stick with the same plan in goal.
“For right now, I don’t see us making significant changes in what we’re doing and who we are,” Kirt said. “There’s obviously things that we need to tweak, but I think from a personnel standpoint I feel pretty comfortable with what we’ve been doing.”
This is the third consecutive season that the Lady Vols will play in the NCAA tournament but the first time since 2008 that a tournament campaign will begin away from Regal Soccer Stadium. Playing on the road brings unique challenges and is an area where Tennessee has struggled, having only won four of nine games away from home.
However, more important for Tennessee is the factor of revenge. The Lady Vols still remember how last season ended and are looking to respond to last year’s result.
“It’s certainly on our players’ minds and it serves as motivation to step on the field against these guys and give them our best effort and our best approach,” Kirt said. “They’re excited to have the opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament and certainly are going to do everything in their power to make sure that this continues.”
