⚽️ LADY VOLS SOCCER

[lvocd]

It makes me ill to already be making adjustments because of missing players after seeing how excited everyone was for the start of the season. Woulda been nice to have enjoyed at least a handful of games with the optimum lineup before the injuries started piling up. Ugh.

 

[MAD]

 

[MAD]

Former Vol McKinley Burkett scores for Liberty.




Liberty has two former Tennessee players on their squad, the other Birdie Herman.


Seems like every player that goes into the portal becomes a starter.

 

[MAD]

 

[MAD]

No. 11 UT Plays No. 23 SMU To A 1-1 Draw



KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 11 Tennessee played to a 1-1 draw with No. 23 SMU on Sunday in front of a crowd of 975 in Regal Soccer Stadium.

Redshirt-junior Jaida Thomas found the back of the net for UT, and Peyton Annen was the goal scorer for SMU.

In goal, redshirt-freshman Ally Zazzara made six saves on the day.

The Lady Vols, who were playing without seniors Lindsey Romig and Claudia Dipasupil and sophomore Taylor Huff, outshot the Mustangs 25-17 and took 17 corner kicks to SMU's five.

"We would've liked another 20 minutes to get another goal there. We created a ton of chances. We talked about it before the game, about our ability to be great in both boxes, and we were okay in both boxes. Some moments we were pretty good, and other moments we weren't good enough. That's the difference in the game," said Tennessee head coach Joe Kirt.

"We gave the ball away a little too much in the back half, but we created a ton of opportunities. Credit to SMU, they competed really hard and kept the ball out of the net. Their goalkeeper and their team made it hard for us. I'm proud of our effort in the response to get the game back to 1-1 and the amount of pressure we put on them in the second half. We have to find the breakthrough."

Sophomore Claire Rain had Tennessee's first chance of the game off a corner kick three minutes into play, but her header deflected off a Mustang defender.

Annen put SMU on the board in the 40th minute, capitalizing on a free kick just outside of the 18-yard box by Courtney Sebazco.

Fifth-year senior Abbey Burdette nearly evened the score three minutes into the second half, winning a header in the box off a corner kick but missing just wide of the far post.

The Lady Vols tied it up at 1-all in the 60th minute when Thomas connected on a Hannah Zaluski corner kick, tapping a shot through the defense from close range.

The Mustangs got a breakaway by Julissa Cisneros in the 71st minute, but Zazzara laid out, getting a hand on the shot and sending the ball wide off the goal post before collecting it for a punt.

Zazzara came up with another clutch save nine minutes later, diving to collect a 24-yard blast from Sebazco.

Zaluski got a foot on a loose ball in the box in the 81st minute and beat the keeper, but a Mustang defender was there for the team save, and the clock wound down with the teams tied.

UP NEXT: UT will face its third straight ranked opponent on Thursday, hosting No. 2 Duke in a 7 p.m. ET contest that will be aired on SEC Network.

THOMAS MAKING MOVES: With her first goal of the season, Jaida Thomas moves into a tie for eighth place all-time in career goals scored at UT with 26. She ties Emily Redberg and Kayla Lockaby and trails No. 1 Kylee Rossi by 17 and no. 2 Hannah Wilkinson by just seven.

 

[MAD]

Beautiful first goal for VFL Cariel Ellis playing for Lamar.

 

[Vol67]

Don't look now but this team was seriously overrated

 

[turbovol]

Wow: This was one hugely frustrating game. For one thing, as someone noted above, we were 1 freaking game into the season and already had to play without 3 starters, including, most recently Huff--whose skills and talent simply cannot be replaced. I have no idea why she didn't play. Had she, we would certainly have won this game.

We should have won it anyway--but simply had no cutting edge or polish in and around the box all day. We squandered countless chances to score. We missed shots, we rushed shots and missed the net, we were half-a-step late getting to numerous balls that could have been put in the net, the SMU keeper made a couple of nice saves. We just weren't good enough. Almost everyone played a hand in this debacle but Fusco. If the rest of the team were half as good as her, we would have won 4-1. As it was, while we probably had the ball 3 times more than SMU, and had twice as many shots, seemingly, we could easily have lost as SMU came a couple of inches from scoring on two occasions late in the game--one hitting the post and the other the crossbar.

SMU had a lot of defenders back, and they are a physical team--but we just weren't sharp enough. Thomas had a goal, but I thought she and George just weren't quick with their play and their decisions. They both spend too much time dithering with the ball and end up losing the ball or not getting a shot off. Thomas got a nice pass from somebody and was in on goal, had a chance to shoot even as two defenders were converging on her--and once again kept the ball too long and didn't get a shot off. She should have recognized the pressure and shot the ball. George had a ball right in front of her, in front of goal, in the second half, but was a half-second late getting to it and didn't get a shot off.

George has created a ton of corners for us with her bulldozer-like style of play, muscling past one or two defenders and then getting a cross off that's typically deflected out of bounds for a ....corner. I have come to think that she would be better off just passing the ball to an open Vol when she gets double-teamed, instead of getting into one of her scrums, because, first, we are not good at converting corners (1 goal out of 17 corners today!) and, second, even though she's super fit, getting involved in numerous MMA-style clashes with defenders every game risks injury.

This team needs to find another centerback. We're playing with 3 in the back now--but it's not a back line that could win a national championship. Katz is a natural midfielder who is playing out of position because we seem to have no one better. She is active and responsible--saved a goal off the line against UNC--but she is not big or physical enough to be a true, good, 1v1 back-line defender---IF you want to be competitive and beat Top 5 national teams. That's the point. Katz's strength is getting forward with the ball--not 1v1 defending. She should be playing one of our outside mid positions--which is essentially where she played last year. Meanwhile, we've got someone playing outside mid who is not a natural midfielder and has been less than stellar thus far.

I frankly am not optimistic about the Duke game. They are a very good team and we have holes in our game. With Huff we have a chance of getting a result; without her, not much, I"m afraid. I hate to be negative so early in the season, but this is what I'm seeing.

 

[MAD]

Wow: This was one hugely frustrating game. For one thing, as someone noted above, we were 1 freaking game into the season and already had to play without 3 starters, including, most recently Huff--whose skills and talent simply cannot be replaced. I have no idea why she didn't play. Had she, we would certainly have won this game.

We should have won it anyway--but simply had no cutting edge or polish in and around the box all day. We squandered countless chances to score. We missed shots, we rushed shots and missed the net, we were half-a-step late getting to numerous balls that could have been put in the net, the SMU keeper made a couple of nice saves. We just weren't good enough. Almost everyone played a hand in this debacle but Fusco. If the rest of the team were half as good as her, we would have won 4-1. As it was, while we probably had the ball 3 times more than SMU, and had twice as many shots, seemingly, we could easily have lost as SMU came a couple of inches from scoring on two occasions late in the game--one hitting the post and the other the crossbar.

SMU had a lot of defenders back, and they are a physical team--but we just weren't sharp enough. Thomas had a goal, but I thought she and George just weren't quick with their play and their decisions. They both spend too much time dithering with the ball and end up losing the ball or not getting a shot off. Thomas got a nice pass from somebody and was in on goal, had a chance to shoot even as two defenders were converging on her--and once again kept the ball too long and didn't get a shot off. She should have recognized the pressure and shot the ball. George had a ball right in front of her, in front of goal, in the second half, but was a half-second late getting to it and didn't get a shot off.

George has created a ton of corners for us with her bulldozer-like style of play, muscling past one or two defenders and then getting a cross off that's typically deflected out of bounds for a ....corner. I have come to think that she would be better off just passing the ball to an open Vol when she gets double-teamed, instead of getting into one of her scrums, because, first, we are not good at converting corners (1 goal out of 17 corners today!) and, second, even though she's super fit, getting involved in numerous MMA-style clashes with defenders every game risks injury.

This team needs to find another centerback. We're playing with 3 in the back now--but it's not a back line that could win a national championship. Katz is a natural midfielder who is playing out of position because we seem to have no one better. She is active and responsible--saved a goal off the line against UNC--but she is not big or physical enough to be a true, good, 1v1 back-line defender---IF you want to be competitive and beat Top 5 national teams. That's the point. Katz's strength is getting forward with the ball--not 1v1 defending. She should be playing one of our outside mid positions--which is essentially where she played last year. Meanwhile, we've got someone playing outside mid who is not a natural midfielder and has been less than stellar thus far.

I frankly am not optimistic about the Duke game. They are a very good team and we have holes in our game. With Huff we have a chance of getting a result; without her, not much, I"m afraid. I hate to be negative so early in the season, but this is what I'm seeing.

What about Rain and Burdette, both seemed solid the whole match. Renie seemed to make a few bad passes, hopefully that gets fixed.

 

[kregman]

The worst is our corner feeds (missing Dipasupil I know), but it is awful most of the time. Worked to get a corner at the end just to kick in the ground into the side of the net.

 

[turbovol]

What about Rain and Burdette, both seemed solid the whole match. Renie seemed to make a few bad passes, hopefully that gets fixed.

Burdette was good--almost always is. Rain was good, solid, though her passing is erratic.

Renie was OK. She gave the ball away in our half of the field, two or three times, trying to make long passes--and one of them almost led to a SMU goal. Her footwork is not great at times. She'll be OK--but this team badly needs another good centerback (or two). If we had them we could move Katz back to the midfield /outside back--which is her best position--but apparently we don't. I think the 3-5-2 is a good attacking formation--but you need really good defenders in the back for it to work against strong opponents.

If we went back to the 4-4-2 that worked so well for us last year, we'd still have a problem. That would move Katz to the outside back spot she manned last year, which would be good, but who's going to be the other centerback with Renie? It looks like it would have to be Rain, which wouldn't be bad--but then you would have Dipasupil/Zalunski at outside back on the other side---Rain's position last year--and that would be challenging for them. We'd be weaker at that position--and, overall, our back four wouldn't be as good as last year's....I wondered all off season who the coaches would look to to replace French at CB--and it turns they didn't turn to anyone, instead going to a three back and making Katz a centerback--and it's not ideal.

Zaluski's last corner delivery today, with the clock expiring, was terrible--but most of her other corner kicks today were pretty good. It's funny: I think converting only 1 of 17 corner kicks is bad--but according to what I read, the average conversion rate in pro men's soccer is 4-5 percent. By that standard 1/17 would be average--but I still say we must do better. We just don't have people who can get their heads on the ball--though Burdette is trying, as is Renie, who is tall.

Tori Beeler Watson, a former UT player who does color commentary on UT's broadcasts, has this idea that corner kicks should be ballooned up high into the box--but she is wrong. Corner kicks should be lasered, with pace, into the box, a little higher than head high, so that if you get your head on it the ball will rocket past the keeper--the pace of the ball from the kick providing the power/impetus rather than having to use more of your head. Also, when you balloon the kick, you have a bunch of people trying to head it--ours and theirs--and that makes it harder to score, not easier.

The UT broadcasts are OK but they badly need to start using graphics for substitutions, so that viewers will know who is coming in and who is coming out. They don't do it--and, worse, the announcer doesn't do it either. So we're watching and suddenly we see new players on the field but there's been no word on who has come in, or when. Not good.

 

[MAD]

 

[MAD]

TDS Women's Division I Top 25: August 8

There's a new No. 1 team at the top after the opening weekend of games in Women's DI soccer.

Virginia headlines early ACC dominances, as the Cavaliers crushed a pair of non-conference opponents to open the season.

Florida State, Duke, North Carolina and BYU round out the top five.

TDS Had Tennessee at #3 last week.

 

[MAD]

 

[MAD]

 

[MAD]

 

[MAD]

Duke is ready, would love to see a W against them.

Hope we get Romig, Huff and Dipasupil back for the match.

 

[Lurker]

I may have missed it, but what happened to Ms. Huff? Injury or sickness?

 

[MAD]

I may have missed it, but what happened to Ms. Huff? Injury or sickness?

I don’t think it was officially announced but she was on the sidelines Sunday but not in uniform.

 

[MAD]

 

[MAD]

 

[turbovol]

The SMU stats were ridiculous. We had an "expected goals"--based on all our shots (where they were taken from, angle, etc--of nearly 5, and scored
1. We were in the SMU defensive third 74 times--amazing number--and in the SMU box 34 times. We simply need players who can be more poised, decisive, make better decisions in the moment (like shooting when the chance is there and not dithering with the ball and then not getting a shot off, as Thomas as done two or three times in the last 2 games) and put the ball in the net. The Duke game will be a lot different--we won't get anywhere near as many good chances.

We've got two starters playing in positions for which they are not well-suited, both on our right side, and that's a problem when playing strong opponents. I think one switch has to be made, but don't know if it will be. Just not providing the play needed.

 

[MAD]

The SMU stats were ridiculous. We had an "expected goals"--based on all our shots (where they were taken from, angle, etc--of nearly 5, and scored
1. We were in the SMU defensive third 74 times--amazing number--and in the SMU box 34 times. We simply need players who can be more poised, decisive, make better decisions in the moment (like shooting when the chance is there and not dithering with the ball and then not getting a shot off, as Thomas as done two or three times in the last 2 games) and put the ball in the net. The Duke game will be a lot different--we won't get anywhere near as many good chances.

We've got two starters playing in positions for which they are not well-suited, both on our right side, and that's a problem when playing strong opponents. I think one switch has to be made, but don't know if it will be. Just not providing the play needed.

Are you referring to Katz and Nelson?

 

[MAD]

Congrats to VFL Isabella Cook

 

[MAD]