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Murray State’s Hailey Cole (11) makes a leaping kick Saturday against Tennessee’s Kayla Barr (14) and Jenna Stayart (5), as Racer teammate Kate Stordy (8) was also trying to reach the ball during Saturday’s friendly at Cutchin Field.
Murray State’s Morgan Bodker (7) gains the inside track for a loose ball against Tennessee’s Nolyn Bartholomew Saturday during the teams’ friendly at Cutchin Field in Murray.
Murray State’s Hailey Cole (11) makes a leaping kick Saturday against Tennessee’s Kayla Barr (14) and Jenna Stayart (5), as Racer teammate Kate Stordy (8) was also trying to reach the ball during Saturday’s friendly at Cutchin Field.
Murray State’s Morgan Bodker (7) gains the inside track for a loose ball against Tennessee’s Nolyn Bartholomew Saturday during the teams’ friendly at Cutchin Field in Murray.
MURRAY—Forget the fact that it was Southeastern Conference member Tennessee that came to Murray Saturday to do something rather rare — play Murray State of the Missouri Valley Conference in a spring soccer friendly at Cutchin Field.
With it believed that no Tennessee team has set foot in Calloway County for an organized competition since the Racers’ cross country program hosted an NCAA Regional several year ago, the fact that the Lady Vols were in town was big enough news by itself. However, there was something much bigger at work.
The real hook to this story is what Tennessee has become. This is now a perennial Sweet 16 participant in the NCAA Tournament, having won the SEC Tournament in 2021 with a team that also ended the regular season with the best record in that powerful league.
And at least four of the players that were part of that ‘21 championship and two Sweet 16s were on the field Saturday. In other words, it is very possible that this is the most decorated soccer program to ever play at Cutchin.
“I want to play the best of the best, and I consider Tennessee one of the best of the best in the country,” said Murray State Head Coach Matt Lodge of a Lady Vols team that emerged with five goals Saturday, while holding the Racers to no goals. Of course, this a team that, earlier in the spring, showed it is awfully good, scoring three goals in another friendly against 2023 NCAA Final Four participant Clemson.
“No disrespect to other teams, but I’d rather play a team that’s going to give us that rather than scoring six or seven times on a team where we don’t have to get out of second gear, really. I thought we got a lot out of this game, and we’ve had a good spring. I think we were the dominant team in our first three games (before having the fourth game at North Alabama canceled three weeks ago).
“It’s good to, not necessarily saying get ‘brought back to earth,’ but we’re seeing, ‘Hey! We’re not always going to be the team that gets off on the front foot. We might be the team that has to defend a little more.”
No statistics were kept Saturday but a player that had a big day was the Racers’ keeper, former Caldwell County standout Rachel McClung, who, several days earlier, was discovered on the intramurals fields. Her presence, along with Murray High alum Kyra Jones, who did not play Saturday, allowed the Racers to have two keepers for this match, probably ensuring that was still able to happen.
Ironically, the North Alabama match at the end of last month was canceled because the Lions had no keepers.
Yes, McClung was under attack against the much bigger and faster Lady Vols of the SEC. However, Lodge had nothing but praise for her efforts, as well as the rest of his team.
“She did a fantastic job (including at least three spectacular saves). Then, you see that three of our back four players were freshmen and they did a fantastic job and, ahead of that, we had three or four sophomores starting, and they just played against an SEC powerhouse,” Lodge said. “This is going to make them so much better for having gone through it. The scoring line changes nothing in that.
“You want to leave spring with a high, but I think it’s also good to go into the summer with the idea of, ‘OK, we’ve got some work to do,’ rather than diluted confidence (from playing lesser teams).
“It’s more of, ‘OK, if we want to play teams like that (in the postseason), we’ve got to work hard over the summer.’
Lodge did say that one victory that came from Saturday was his team proved it can cause a bona fide national power to have to make an offensive adjustment. The Lady Vols’ first goal did not happen until less than 25 minutes remained in the first half. This was after they had issues with penetrating the Murray State defense.
“After 20 minutes, they switched their formation to a 3-5-2 because we had caused them some issues (even forging some offensive runs deep into Lady Vols territory),” he said. “I take a lot of pride in that we made them switch because of the way we were playing.”
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