In their first of five straight games against power conference opponents and in front of a packed crowd on South Campus on Sunday, the Memphis Tigers women’s soccer team hung on to beat Ole Miss 3-2.
The win marks the first time in program history that Memphis has beaten the Rebels three years in a row.
“I’m proud of this young team, we’ve got some young kids that, really, it’s the first time that they’ve been put in this situation that you have to really just fight,” Memphis coach Brooks Monaghan said. “Sometimes it’s not pretty and I was proud of them.”
Both teams came out of the gates hot to start this rivalry match. The Rebels threatened to score in just the second minute of the game, but the Memphis defense held firm. Moments later, the Tigers weaved pass after pass to find Flavie Dube to put Memphis on the board in the seventh minute.
While Ole Miss did not find another shot for the rest of the first half, the Tigers kept the pressure high. They finished the first half with 10 shots and five shots on goal. They produced many great looks on those chances, but nothing found the back of the net and the score remained 1-0 going into halftime.
“You go back to the first half, and we had some chances," Monaghan said. "I know you don’t score everything, but we needed to put one away. It changes the whole tone of the game. At the end of the day, it was a battle,” Monaghan said.
Not even a minute into the second half, Ai Kitagawa was able to sneak a ball past the opposing keeper to give the Tigers a short lived 2-0 lead. Only a short while later, Rebel attacker Brooklyn Marn delivered a ball across the penalty box and above the head of Memphis keeper Abby Kudla to put Ole Miss on the board.
After a bit of back and forth, Rebel Ryann Reynolds was issued a yellow card for a reckless tackle for the Rebels, which set the Tigers’ Alex Mackay up to find the bottom left corner of the net to give the home team a 3-1 lead.
All was good for the Tigers until Mackay committed a handball in the 83rd minute, which resulted in a penalty kick for Katie Ramsden who fit it into the top right corner of the goal to cut Memphis’ lead to just one.
The Rebels picked up the pace in an effort to send the match into overtime, but Memphis hung on to secure their second win of the season.
“It was a good game, a good test (and) a good early test,” Monaghan said. “This reminded me of some of the old battles that we used to have with Ole Miss. They showed a lot of fight.”
The Tigers will be back on the pitch on the road against Kennesaw State on Thursday. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. CT and will be streamed on ESPN+.
