The No. 20 Auburn soccer team saw its 10-match unbeaten streak end in the most unlikely of places on Sunday afternoon as it was shutout, 2-0, at Mississippi State. The loss, Auburn’s first in the series with Mississippi State since 2001 and only its fourth overall, drops Auburn’s record to 9-2-1, 3-1-0 SEC while Mississippi State improved to 4-5-3, 1-2-1 SEC.

 

“I have to congratulate Mississippi State. They played fantastic. They had a great game plan and they executed,” Auburn Head Coach Karen Hoppa said. “I don’t want to sound cliché but they wanted it more than we did. They came out with energy. It’s the SEC; any team can beat anybody. We tell our girls that and for us we are still learning how to play with the target on our back.”

 

Auburn outshot Mississippi State, 24-11, and forced Mississippi State goalkeeper Skylar Rosson into making eight saves while Auburn goalkeeper Amy Howard saw just four shots go on frame, with two of them getting by her and her stopping the other two.

 

“We have to finish better. We had our chances to win the game. We took 24 shots but we didn’t put enough of them on goal, so that has to be better,” Hoppa said. “Our possession has to be better. We should have passed the ball way better than we did today. We got impatient and we played too many final balls.”

 

Mississippi State took a 1-0 lead in the 37th minute as Amy Hoover took control of a loose ball inside the six following a MSU free kick and slipped it in for her second goal of the season. The goal stood up for Mississippi State into the half, marking just the second time this season that Auburn has gone into the break trailing, the other being the season-opening 4-1 loss to Wake Forest.

 

Auburn was fortunate to be down just 1-0 in the first half as Howard had to made a diving stop on a Elisabeth Sullivan breakaway just 11 minutes into the match and then 12 minutes later Jasmine Simmons missed sliding a goal inside the post by less than a foot as Auburn could only put one of its 11 shots on frame compared to three of Mississippi State’s five in the first 45 minutes.

 

Mississippi State needed just 1:50 into the second half to go up 2-0 as Sullivan found herself on another breakaway and this time was able to blast one past Howard. The two goals for Mississippi State marked just the second time in the 17-match series history that Mississippi State has scored multiple goals in a single match on Auburn, the last time coming in 2001.

 

Auburn’s four-match road trip continues next weekend when it heads to No. 9 Florida on Friday and South Carolina on Sunday.

 

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