Heading into final week, Aggie soccer focused on staying locked in

On what they’ll use from this week against Ole Miss:

Well, we feel good. The win in Nashville was a really big win. Both of these games we had to come from behind, which, as a coaching staff, makes you say we don’t want to come from behind. But it’s really nice to know that the team is going to rally from that and do really well.

In both games, we gave up goals reasonably early, but the second half against Vanderbilt, especially when Addie McCain really picked it up and took over mid-field. Same thing all day on Sunday. Addie was huge in being the field general out there and controlling the action of what was going on, but Ally Watt was by far the hero of the game with a huge goal with only 45 seconds left in the second overtime, which instead of it being a one-point tie, we get the whole 3 points which was huge. They’re the defending champions, and then four goals against Missouri was outstanding. The last time she played Missouri, she scored four goals. The Missouri staff has asked that we don’t bring her to any other games in the future, and as a senior, we won’t but really an awesome game, and we’ve got to keep our nose straight ahead and not look around at distracting things, but just know that Thursday’s a big night.

It’s Halloween. We’re giving away a lot of candy for kids who want to come out. You’ll get more candy at Ellis field than they will tromping around neighborhoods, and that game kicks off around 6:30. I know the SEC network is doing like a whip around coverage, so all the games are starting in 15-minute increments all around the footprint, so it should be exciting in that case.

Ole Miss has always been a really tough game for us. They’ve beaten us a couple of times. Last year, we went to Oxford and they tied us. But this year, for us, we want to keep ourselves moving forward. We’d like to still have a chance to win the league. If South Carolina ties against Auburn and if Tennessee can win at home against Arkansas and we win, then we’ll get a share of the championship again. So all of that is still in play for us. Ole Miss comes in trying to put themselves in a position where they aren’t playing an away game, and they’re trying to get themselves in the NCAA tournament. A win over Texas A&M would look great for their resume. So we’ve got to look at all those things and try to understand that really it’s just about us and what we can do and how we perform and how we prepare and not get distracted by all the clutter on the outside.

On what they’re going to attack against Ole Miss:

Number one, they’ve got a solid goalkeeper. She’s young. We’re glad that she’s there. The kid who was there last year had her personal best game against us three times — sophomore, junior and senior year — so we’re glad that she’s gone. The new kid that's in there is a super goalkeeper. Their goalkeeper coach does a great job with them, but more than anything, they’re really organized, and their two center backs are very very good. It’s hard to get behind them, and it’s hard to get beyond their organization. We’re going to have to play with patience and wait to strike, and when we strike, we’ll do it quickly.