Ole Miss Head Soccer Coach Addressed the Media
Opening statement…
“I
think I also speak for Coach McRoberts when I say that we appreciate
you coming each Monday. It is great for our teams to have you here and
be able to speak with you. We are off to a 4-0-2 start. We have had the
last five games at home. We are playing well at home. We have had some
great performances, especially from one of our freshmen, CeCe Kizer.
Kizer is leading the SEC in goals now, with six total in six games. She
is on a great pace. On Friday night against UCF, she scored in the 89th
minute to get us tied, when we were down 2-1 before the goal. Then last
night, against Little Rock, she scored the game-winner with about four
minutes to go in the first overtime. She is doing really well. I am
happy with the team as a whole. We have a redshirt-freshman in the goal
in Marnie Merritt. She has played very well. We have had four shutouts
so far in the season. We have only given up three goals on the season.
The three goals we have given up have all been off set plays, one of
those being a penalty kick goal. Defensively we are playing really
well. This year in midfield we are led by two seniors, Jessica Hiskey
and Jennifer Miller. They have been excellent for us. They are really
setting the tone in how we play. I am very happy with the performance
from those two. We have two juniors starting up top, Addie Forbus and
Gretchen Harknett, who are also playing very well for us. Our backline
has Samantha Sanders back for us as a senior captain, doing a great
job. Liza Harbin is also playing back there for us. Danielle Gray is
getting a start at outside back for us when we play with three on the
backline. She is doing a really good job for us. We open conference
play this weekend as we take on Kentucky Friday night at home. This
will be a great night. They are ranked in the top-20 and playing very
well. They are a very difficult team, and they have a great front
three. They have a few players who are very dynamic and dangerous, so
we will have to be ready for them. We continue with the Kentucky theme
and play Louisville at home on Sunday at noon. Louisville is a team
that beat us last year up there 1-0. They are very well coached and a
very good team. We will have to be ready for them on Sunday.”
On what makes Kizer so good…
“I
think part of it is that she is in the right place at the right time.
CeCe Kizer is putting herself in good spots and I think good goal
scorers have a knack to do that. If you watch her movements when you go
back and look at film, she just moves into really good spots. She gets
herself away from defenders so that she is open. When she gets the
chances she is putting them on frame. Her ratio of shots and shots on
frame are really good. So, even if she doesn’t score, she makes the
goalkeepers save it. Kizer has been really clutch so far and we are
hoping it continues. “
On Marnie Merritt starting as a redshirt-freshman in goal…
“Marnie
Merritt has been really composed. She started out in a really tough
game against FGCU. They put the fans right behind the goals and they
were going crazy. It was really loud and vuvuzelas were out. She held
herself together in a great way during that game. From that point she
has just gotten better and better. She is very composed and very
confident. She has been excellent. She plays very clean and is holding
everything. Merritt looks like a veteran. Training last year with
goalkeeper coach Rob Thompson has really prepared her, and she is doing
a great job so far.”
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