Arkansas-Mississippi State Fight To Draw
STARKVILLE, Miss. — The Arkansas soccer team fought to a scoreless draw with No. 25 Mississippi State Thursday night at the MSU Soccer Field, racking up its sixth shutout of the year and fourth in conference play.
The Razorbacks (10-3-3, 5-2-1 SEC) and Bulldogs (9-4-2, 2-4-2 SEC) played very evenly throughout the first 90 minutes and into overtime. Shots were even after the first half at 10-10 before Arkansas took the slight advantage in the second half and the two extra periods, finishing with a 20-16 advantage.
Even with the lack of legitimate scoring chances, Arkansas’ defense was up to the challenge led by redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Taylor Beitz, who finished the match with a career-high 11 saves, five more than her previous high of six set against LSU (Oct. 4) earlier this year.
Beitz has been the consistent presence for the Arkansas back line in recent weeks, totaling four shutouts in her last six starts. Those four clean sheets have all come against SEC opponents and ties for the second-most conference shutouts in a season in school history.
Thursday’s match with MSU was Arkansas’ fifth to go into overtime this year. The Razorbacks are now 1-1-3 in overtime matches this season, but has garnered a result in each of the last two (vs. LSU).
With the draw, Arkansas is now in a tie for third place in the SEC standings at 16 points with Texas A&M and Tennessee. League-leader Vanderbilt remained unbeaten in conference play with a 3-0 win over Auburn. It sits alone at the top with 22 points and two matches remaining. South Carolina is three points back in second place.
Although Thursday’s match between the Razorbacks and Bulldogs ended in a draw, the match wasn’t short on its exciting moments on the offensive end. Junior Tori Cannata and sophomore Taylor Malham combined for nine of Arkansas’ 20 shots in the match, each with one on goal.
Malham had some of the best chances for the Razorbacks in the overtime periods, finding space on multiple breakaways, but not being able to get clean shots off against the Mississippi State defense.
One of the best chances for Cannata came in the final five minutes of the second half when sophomore Julia Laskaris got the ball on a good cross into the middle of the box. Cannata was there with the well-timed header that rocketed towards the goal, but it flew just wide of the post.
Junior Kayla McKeon, who had at least one point in four of the last five matches coming in, was held in check for the most part during the match. The Texas native only registered three shots, but played all 110 minutes for the Razorbacks.
From Head Coach Colby Hale
“Ties are tough. I thought the players deserved more tonight, but they played hard and created enough chances to win the match. Ties stink, but I’m certainly proud of our performance tonight.”
Up Next
Arkansas has a quick turnaround before its next match as it welcomes in No. 21 Auburn for a match on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Razorback Field. It will be the final home regular-season match for Arkansas and it will also be Senior Day for Ellie Breden, Reece Christopherson and Carly Hoke. The match on Sunday will be broadcast online on SEC Network+.
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