In its third game against a team from the SEC out of five, the Memphis women’s soccer team defeated a keen Missouri squad 2-1 at home Thursday night.
This improves their record to 5-0-0 on the season and an impressive 3-0-0 against the SEC, who had a whopping 10 teams in the NCAA tournament last year.
“We challenged this group, knowing how young we are, and said ‘What the hell?’” Tigers coach Brooks Monaghan said on their tough schedule. “Now we’ve got some momentum. It’s hard not to say young (when talking about the team), but we are, right? With each game, you get more experience. I’m delighted with where we are.”
The game started out very defensively, but freshman phenom Ellis Kelly got the scoring going for the Bluff City Bengals when she converted a beautiful pass by Elise Perron down the right side of the field in the 26th minute for Kelly’s fifth goal in five games.
Missouri didn’t stay out of it for long, however. They ramped up the pressure and were able to find a header in the 41st minute to make the score all tied up at one going into halftime.
The aggression by the Tigers in yellow continued well into the second half, as Memphis struggled to deal with their verticality defensively.
Everything seemed to be coming up Missouri until the 71st minute, where Ashley Henderson weaved through the defense and found Ai Kitagawa on a shot that deflected off the post, bounced off the keeper and somehow found the back of the net to give Memphis a 2-1 lead. From here, the Tigers in white were able to withstand a few more attacks and hang on for the win.
Despite Ai Kitagawa scoring the game-winning goal and Ellis Kelly continuing to make an early case for the American Conference’s Freshman of the Year award, Monaghan’s attention fell on Elise Perron’s performance.
“(This was the) best performance of her career,” Monaghan said. “Very proud of her because she didn’t start the season to her potential. I thought last game was her best game and then I thought this game was her best game.”
The Tigers’ next home game will be one of the biggest regular-season games in the country: No. 2 Tennessee. Fans and media alike are all looking to next Thursday’s clash of in-state rivals as a potential top 10 matchup, but Monaghan said that while it’s “exciting to have a team that’s done so well” come to Memphis, he pointed out that there’s “no way (he’s) going to look past Iowa State.”
The Tigers and Cyclones will do battle in Ames on Sunday, with kickoff set at 6 p.m. CT and streaming available on ESPN+.
