⚽️ LADY VOLS SOCCER
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MAD
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SGMVols
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This is on Kirt, who seems like the new male version of Holly Warlick. It's really on White, who could have hired any number of experienced head coaches for this job but instead picked a longtime assistant who the players liked. It's nice to be liked, but that should NEVER be top consideration when hiring a new coach. And indeed, Kirt's credentials have always been thin. You don't hire people for big jobs that are 15-year-assistants. I didn't like the hire when it was announced, and looks positively terrible now.
There was absolutely no reason for Kirt to change the system that worked so well last year--but he not only changed it, he's stuck with it all year even as it's been obvious for weeks that there are defensive issues. And I've been saying so for weeks. We gave up 29 shots tonight! That is ridiculous--embarrassing. Of course any system requires players to do their jobs--and that's been missing, too. We were rightly considered one of the top teams in the country going into this season. And now? And now, we will have to rally big-time to even make the NCAA tourney.
There was absolutely no reason for Kirt to change the system that worked so well last year--but he not only changed it, he's stuck with it all year even as it's been obvious for weeks that there are defensive issues. And I've been saying so for weeks. We gave up 29 shots tonight! That is ridiculous--embarrassing. Of course any system requires players to do their jobs--and that's been missing, too. We were rightly considered one of the top teams in the country going into this season. And now? And now, we will have to rally big-time to even make the NCAA tourney.
Definitely flirting with missing the tourney. Kirt's decision to go with a 3-back system--and continue to stick with it when its been clear that it was not working---has just been stupid. We should have gone out and signed a transfer centerback in the off-season--but didn't. Two or 3 of bama's best players are transfers. We did get a transfer centerback 2 years ago, from Syracuse, but she has never seen the field. If we'd just put Hennessy at centerback and kept the team as it was last year, we'd have been fine, probably. Didn't do it. Kirt had not tried any new player combinations since Game ONE--also dumb, when you've got four easy opponents and you can tinker. He decided to tinker tonight--two new starters. I don't know how they did, since I haven't seen the game, but I assume not very well given how bad our defense was--before a big game. Also not the wisest of moves, especially when one of the new starters is a true freshman. Very disappointing.
Everybody always raves about White but what exactly has he done beside hire Heupel, who worked for him at South Florida? Or was it Central Florida? I like Heupel, seems encouraging--but I think every new football coach we've had had an encouraging first year or maybe two before things started going south. I hope he can actually build real momentum--and Saturday night will be a real opportunity to do that. I think a lot of people have this idea that White hired our baseball coach, but he didn't. There's no excuse for a lazy coaching search--and yet Fulmer was lazy when hiring Harper and White was lazy in hiring Kirt, though I think he also thought we might lose players to the transfer portal if he didn't make a quick move, but I'm not sure that would have happened. It's ironic: It looked like Pensky might struggle at FSU given the number of returning players who opted to leave when Krikorian resigned--but Pensky and FSU are doing well. We thought we'd be in great shape with all the starters we had back and are in trouble.
Back to soccer: Yea, Rain's Instagram vids were entertaining before the team started struggling. They're not so entertaining anymore.
MAD
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Tennessee Falls to #6 Alabama, 4-2
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee came up short against No. 6 Alabama on Thursday, falling 4-2 in Regal Stadium.
Sophomore Jordan Fusco and senior Claudia Dipasupil were the goal scorers for UT (5-3-1, 1-1 SEC). In the net, senior Lindsey Romig tied her career high of nine saves set last Friday at Kentucky.
Reyna Reyes had a brace for Alabama (9-1-1) while Riley Mattingly Parker and Ashlynn Serepca rounded out the scoring.
"We just reminded the team of our identity and our competitive fight. We didn't have that confidence and fight consistently in the first half," said Tennessee head coach Joe Kirt.
"I think in the second half we were better with that, and our team knows that we have to bring that every game. In this league, if you don't compete, you're not going to win many games. We were inconsistent with that tonight in the first half. The second half we were better. There's still another level... That's the message leaving this game, (we need) that consistent competitive fight for 90 minutes."
Alabama came out aggressive offensively, taking three shots before UT went on the offensive. Fusco got UT's first look in the seventh minute, making it count with a rocket from 25 yards out that banked off the inside of the right goal post and into the net to put the Lady Vols ahead early, 1-0.
The Crimson Tide evened the score seven minutes later when Reyes got a head on a corner kick by Felicia Knox.
UA then went up 3-1 in the span of a minute and 40 seconds, both the result of Tennessee defensive clears from inside the six-yard-box that Alabama players got a foot on. Parker scored first with Serepca following shortly thereafter.
Huff beat an Alabama defender in the box in the 36th minute and was tripped from behind, drawing a penalty kick that Dipasupil put into the left side net to pull UT back within one. That margin would hold through halftime, with Alabama leading 3-2.
UA went back up by two five minutes into the second half with Reyes scoring at close range off an assist from Kate Henderson.
Romig came up big with a one-on-one save in the 55th minute when Parker broke through Tennessee's back line.
Fifth-year senior Mackenzie George got a good opportunity with just over four minutes left in the game, receiving the ball inside the box and getting off a hard shot, but it sailed wide of the far post.
UP NEXT: Tennessee will head to Kentucky for a 1 p.m. ET matchup on Sunday. The contest will be streamed on SECN+.
SHE SHOOTS, SHE SCORES: Senior Claudia Dipasupil scored her second PK in as many games, keeping her collegiate record a perfect 4-4 from the penalty mark.
THE BLUE DEBUT: Tennessee donned its Summitt Blue jerseys for the first time against Alabama in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Summitt Blue stands alongside "Smokey Grey" and "Dark Mode" (formerly Anthracite) as the three accent colors on Tennessee Athletics' official color palette. Soccer is one of four teams that will debut the Summitt Blue uniforms during the 2022-23 academic year – a collection dubbed the "Summitt Legacy" series.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee came up short against No. 6 Alabama on Thursday, falling 4-2 in Regal Stadium.
Sophomore Jordan Fusco and senior Claudia Dipasupil were the goal scorers for UT (5-3-1, 1-1 SEC). In the net, senior Lindsey Romig tied her career high of nine saves set last Friday at Kentucky.
Reyna Reyes had a brace for Alabama (9-1-1) while Riley Mattingly Parker and Ashlynn Serepca rounded out the scoring.
"We just reminded the team of our identity and our competitive fight. We didn't have that confidence and fight consistently in the first half," said Tennessee head coach Joe Kirt.
"I think in the second half we were better with that, and our team knows that we have to bring that every game. In this league, if you don't compete, you're not going to win many games. We were inconsistent with that tonight in the first half. The second half we were better. There's still another level... That's the message leaving this game, (we need) that consistent competitive fight for 90 minutes."
Alabama came out aggressive offensively, taking three shots before UT went on the offensive. Fusco got UT's first look in the seventh minute, making it count with a rocket from 25 yards out that banked off the inside of the right goal post and into the net to put the Lady Vols ahead early, 1-0.
The Crimson Tide evened the score seven minutes later when Reyes got a head on a corner kick by Felicia Knox.
UA then went up 3-1 in the span of a minute and 40 seconds, both the result of Tennessee defensive clears from inside the six-yard-box that Alabama players got a foot on. Parker scored first with Serepca following shortly thereafter.
Huff beat an Alabama defender in the box in the 36th minute and was tripped from behind, drawing a penalty kick that Dipasupil put into the left side net to pull UT back within one. That margin would hold through halftime, with Alabama leading 3-2.
UA went back up by two five minutes into the second half with Reyes scoring at close range off an assist from Kate Henderson.
Romig came up big with a one-on-one save in the 55th minute when Parker broke through Tennessee's back line.
Fifth-year senior Mackenzie George got a good opportunity with just over four minutes left in the game, receiving the ball inside the box and getting off a hard shot, but it sailed wide of the far post.
UP NEXT: Tennessee will head to Kentucky for a 1 p.m. ET matchup on Sunday. The contest will be streamed on SECN+.
SHE SHOOTS, SHE SCORES: Senior Claudia Dipasupil scored her second PK in as many games, keeping her collegiate record a perfect 4-4 from the penalty mark.
THE BLUE DEBUT: Tennessee donned its Summitt Blue jerseys for the first time against Alabama in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Summitt Blue stands alongside "Smokey Grey" and "Dark Mode" (formerly Anthracite) as the three accent colors on Tennessee Athletics' official color palette. Soccer is one of four teams that will debut the Summitt Blue uniforms during the 2022-23 academic year – a collection dubbed the "Summitt Legacy" series.
Exactly: This is another reason to worry about Kirt. He seems sanguine about everything. He called our win against Florida "a great victory." Really? It was a victory, but a worrisome one--not a "great" one. We gave up a lot of good chances and could easily have lost to a team that will probably end up at or near the bottom of the conference. The red flags were obvious--and then tonight we give up 3 goals in the first 27' of the game! Are you kidding? The defense has looked vulnerable in multiple games--and yet he always seems somewhat optimistic, as if we're the Bad News Bears and not a team that won 20 games last year. I don't get it.
We got waxed tonight, our defense was atrocious (I don't think any SEC team gave up more than 2 goals tonight) and he talks about needing more "competitive fight." We probably do--but I'm quite sure the problems run deeper than that. And how can competitive fight be an issue in the biggest game of the season to date? It's his and the coaches job to have the team ready. It seems there are multiple problems. We're not scoring enough either. We've got a 5-alarm fire and Kirt seems to want to bring out a garden hose.
Why doesn't anyone say the obvious? Alabama is one of the top teams in the country, and may well vie for the NCAA championship? They spread the field, attack constantly, make pinpoint passes, players are where they are supposed to be, and they swarm the opponents when on defense. Alabama's defeat of South Carolina wasn't a fluke. I watched it and knew UT would have trouble beating them. We got whipped by a better team.
MAD
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Lurker
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Understood and fair. However, that should be true of the UT side as well. The roster is blessed with outstanding talent and something simply is not clicking. IMO we have the right talent but the wrong approach for that talent. The coaching staff obviously disagrees or they would be making adjustments. A team that should be in the top 10 is not likely to make it to the tournament unless something changes. The talent is there.
Why don't we say that bama is good? You've missed the point. WE should be one of the better teams in the country. We were a top 10 national team last year, won 20 games, and returned all but one of our starters. The point is not whether bama is good--yes, they are playing very well. The point is why are we bad? That's the real issue here.
We were not good against florida--which is not a good team. We could have lost that game. We gave up 29 shots last night. 29. That is beyond TERRIBLE. Tennessee Tech could have played bama and would not have given up 29 shots. Good offensive teams get shut down by good/solid defensive teams all the time. No team in the SEC gave up more than 2 goals last night, I believe--and I think only one team gave up 2. The rest gave up 0 or 1 goal.
Our defense is a mess--and it's been obvious that it's been an issue for weeks and Kirt has done nothing about it. He stupidly stayed with the 3-back system that he started the season with. We do not have enough good defenders to play a 3-back system. You need 3 good centerbacks to play it. We do not have 3 good centerbacks--though I'd like to see Hennessey at centerback, but our coach seems a bit clueless about that. We are playing a midfielder--Katz--in the back. She is not a natural 1v1 defender. She wants and is used to getting forward. But you can't really get forward, or should be careful about it, when you are a last-line defender. The same is true of Rain. Renie was very solid last year but she is not the quickest person on the team and does not have great recovery speed--it was her mistake that gave Duke the tying goal in that game. We drop back into our defensive zone, defensive third, but don't mark people. You can't just stand around--you have to challenge the ball and get out on opposing players near the box. We also just had obvious defensive blunders last night trying to clear the ball. We have regressed, and that's completely on the coach.
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