State’s Tying Goal Denied Late At No. 10 Tennessee

Friday, October 15

Knoxville, Tenn.

6:00 p.m.

Mississippi State

3-7-3, 1-5-1

Tennessee

13-1-0, 6-1-0

Mississippi St.

Tennessee

Photo by: Mississippi State Athletics

State’s Tying Goal Denied Late At No. 10 Tennessee

October 15, 2021 | Soccer

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

By: Brian Ogden, Associate Director/Communications

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – With less than two minutes remaining, Mississippi State saw its equalizing goal snuffed out inches from the goal line by a Tennessee defender as the Bulldogs fell, 2-1, in Knoxville.

State had battled back from a two-goal deficit and had a chance to tie the match on a long service from goalkeeper Maddy Anderson. Anderson's clearance bounced over the first pair of players it came to before Onyi Echegini flicked it on with a high-arching volley.

Andrea Tyrrell narrowly beat the Lady Vols' keeper to the ball at the top of the box and poked it on goal with her toe. The ball slowly rolled toward the yawning net, but Tennessee's Tara Katz slid in to clear it off the line.

"We were right there at the end. We could have scored with a minute to go," head coach James Armstrong said. "Once again, the effort was immense all the way through to that final opportunity. It was just played off the line at the end. We went toe-to-toe with a top-10 opponent. We frustrated them."

MSU (3-7-3, 1-5-1 SEC) had fallen behind in the sixth minute after a blocked free kick was deflected in the box. Tennesee's Claire Rain pounced on the rebound and fired it home. In the 47^th minute, Claudia Dipasupil scored from the top left corner of the box.

"The girls played incredibly hard. We made two mistakes. They punished us," Armstrong added. "We were 2-0 down on the road and they came back straight away. We could've equalized at the end. Now, we have to turn performances into results pretty quickly. We're running out of time, but we can't do more than they're doing right now. We're immensely proud of the fight in this team. I think anyone that watched the game can see that."

State pulled within one goal just 10 minutes later when a bouncing clearance was deflected by Hailey Farrington-Bentil. The ball came to rest at Ally Perry's feet in the box where she played it out wide to an open Madison Cotta who scored her second career goal. It was Perry's team-leading fourth assist.

The Bulldogs then outshot the Lady Vols, 6-2, over the next 30 minutes leading into Tyrrell's chance. For the match, MSU held a 14-9 advantage in shots and a 6-4 edge in shots on goal. The Bulldogs held Tennessee (13-1-0, 6-1-0 SEC) to its lowest shot total of the season and matched its second-lowest shots on goal total of the year.

The Bulldogs return home on Thursday, Oct. 21 to host Texas A&M at 6 p.m. CT. State's penultimate home match will air on SEC Network+.

For more information on the Bulldog soccer program, visit HailState.com or search for "HailStateSOC" on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.