Lady Vols Soccer ⚽️ Tennessee @ Virginia Tech 11/15 Friday 7PM Blacksburg VA ⚽️ NCAA TOURNAMENT First Round ESPN+

#5,929
#5,929

MATCH CENTRAL: Lady Vols at #15 Nebraska​


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LINCOLN, Neb. -- Tennessee has advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the 10th time in program history and is set to take on No. 15 Nebraska at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on Friday in Lincoln, Neb.

UT (9-6-4) entered the NCAA Tournament as an unseeded at-large bid with a record of 8-6-4 and an RPI ranking of 32 and was one of only two unseeded teams to defeat a seeded opponent in the NCAA First Round, taking down No. 4 seed and 17th-ranked Xavier on the road in double overtime on Saturday, 1-0.

Nebraska (15-3-3) earned a No. 5 seed as an at-large bid with a record of 14-3-3, having posted a record of 7-1-2 in conference play to finish with a share of the Big Ten regular-season title. The Huskers are currently sitting at No. 15 in the United Soccer Coaches poll and No. 23 in the RPI. NU hosted South Dakota State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, taking a 5-2 win.

The teams have met just once previously, facing off in a neutral site game in 2007 in Los Angeles, Calif. The Lady Vols took a 2-0 victory in that match.

UP NEXT: The winner advances to the NCAA Round of 16 to face the winner of No. 8 seed Gonzaga and UC Irvine on Sunday at Nebraska.

TENNESSEE IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: Tennessee is making its third straight and 15th overall NCAA Tournament appearance since 2001. UT has a 17-12-3 overall record in the tournament and has reached the Round of 16 seven times (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2018, 2021). This marks the 10th time a UT squad has advanced to the NCAA Round of 32. The Lady Vols are 6-1-2 in NCAA Second Round matches.

TOURNAMENT EXPERIENCE: Eight active members of the Lady Vols roster saw action in last year's NCAA Tournament against Xavier, and four took the field with the 2021 squad that defeated Lipscomb and No. 15 Washington State to advance to the NCAA Round of 16.

SCOUTING NU: The Huskers have tallied 60 goals through 21 matches and average 18.9 shots per game. Offensively, they are led by senior forward Eleanor Dale who earned All-Big Ten First Team honors and was named Big Ten Forward of the Year. She has accumulated 26 goals and five assists on the season. Junior Sarah Weber also made the All-Big Ten First Team, and midfielder Haley Peterson and defender Jordan Zade were All-Big Ten Second Team selections.

SHE'S A KEEPER: Following her career night at Xavier where she tied the program record of 15 saves to secure the 1-0 overtime victory, redshirt-sophomore Ally Zazzara earned College Soccer News National Player of the Week Honors.

IN THEIR OFFENSIVE THIRD: On the season, UT has outshot its opponents 281-220 and taken 131 corner kicks while limiting the opposition to just 77. Tennessee is currently 17th in Division I in corner kicks per game (6.84).

ALL-CONFERENCE HONORS: Junior Jordan Fusco was named First Team All-SEC, graduate Sizzy Lawton made Second Team All-SEC, and freshman Kate Runyon landed on the SEC All-Freshman Team. A 2021 SEC All-Freshman Team performer, Fusco has amassed six goals and four assists during her junior campaign to tie for second on the team in total points with 16. Lawton has appeared in every match for Tennessee, starting 10 and recording seven goals and two assists to tie Fusco with 16 points. Runyon has had a standout rookie campaign for the Big Orange, scoring in her first contest as a Lady Vol and appearing in 14 matches while starting nine before missing time due to injury.
 
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#5,941
#5,941
Wisconsin up 1-0 over Texas and former Vol coach Angie Kelly at the half. The score should be 2-0: Wisconsin scored on a beautiful free kick just before the half for what would have been the Badgers' 2nd goal--but one of their players was foolishly offside on the kick and the goal was nullified. Terrible mistake as there is no reason to be offside on a free kick. Texas has more of the big-name attacking talent--but Wisconsin has one of the best coaches in the country. Just a very smart, technical, well-coached team. We'd be 25 percent better, at least, if we had her as coach.
 
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#5,944
#5,944
The first match in our bracket starts in 5 minutes.

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Tennessee plays the winner of this match if they can upset Nebraska later tonight.
 
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#5,945
#5,945
Georgia wins. Not surprised they beat an Iowa team that finished 8th in the Big10 and only got in the tourney by winning the Big10 Tourney. Hey, credit it to them for that--but georgia is the better team.

Texas rallied to beat Wisconsin, scoring 2 goals in the second half to win it 2-1. I was a bit surprised as Wisconsin was much the better team in the last 20 minutes of the first half, but Texas has got a lot of talent--the state of Texas has a lot of good soccer prospects (our Jaida Thomas is from Texas)--and they came through for the Longhorns when they needed it. Angie Kelly is lucky she didn't get fired a few years ago. There was a four or so year stretch when texas was not good and a lot of coaches would have lost their jobs--but she was tight with Texas's female director of women's athletics, or maybe she was a senior associate athletic director or somesuch and I read that that relationship helped Kelly to hold on, and the last three or so years she's had some good teams. For a long time, UT Austin, like us, had separate athletic directors for men's and women's sports.

Alabama survived a UNC onslaught in the first half and is lucky to be trailing by a score of only 1-0. UNC spent a lot of the first half in bama's defensive third, but futzed several opportunities before their star goal-scorer, Ally Sentor, rocketed one in the net. Sentor is not the most athletic looking of players---but she is smart, moves well without being exceptionally fast and is definitely one of the best shooters in the game. We'll see how the second half unfolds.
 
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