Sarah HendersonThe Ole Miss Rebels traveled to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to play the UConn Huskies and the Florida Atlantic Owls this weekend. The Rebels split these matches with a loss to UConn and a victory over FAU.
Both teams’ defenses were absent in Friday’s match against UConn and allowed seven total goals, which were split 4-3 in favor of the Huskies. UConn got off to a hot start by netting three goals in the opening 20 minutes of the game. This early lead would prove insurmountable, as the Huskies would not surrender it for the remainder of the match. Though the Rebels fought back and scored three goals of their own, UConn’s fourth goal in the 52nd minute was too much for the Rebels to overcome.
This was only Ole Miss’s second loss of the season, and though the result was not ideal, the offense impressed, yet again, with another multi-goal performance. Haleigh Stackpole, Madisyn Pezzino and CeCe Kizer all added to their goal tallies for the season. Stackpole’s match-opener for Ole Miss was the freshman’s fourth of the season, Pezzino’s goal was her third this season and Kizer recorded her team-leading eighth goal of the season.
Ole Miss bounced back on Sunday with a victory over FAU via a game-winning goal
by Gabby Little with less than 2 minutes left in regulation. Little’s first goal of the season combined with Kizer’s ninth for the 2-1 result. While the defense struggled this weekend, the offense continued to be dominant and added five more goals to the team’s total.
The Rebels have scored 26 goals this season, giving the Rebels a 3.25 goals per game
average. Though the goal-scoring capacity of the Rebels is vast, the team consistently relies on the same players to add to its goal tally. Only four players on the roster have recorded more than one goal this season. Channing Foster and Pezzino boast three each, Stackpole has four, and the talisman of Ole Miss Soccer, Kizer, has posted nine. Kizer also leads the team in assists, with four, while Little and Pezzino have each notched three.
Playing at a neutral site against two teams with losing records was expected to be a more positive weekend, but the hot streak of the offense shows no signs of cooling down as the side prepares for SEC soccer.
Ole Miss comes out of the weekend with a 6-2 overall record and will start conference play at 7 p.m. Thursday in Tuscaloosa, with a match versus Alabama.
