Photo Credit: Andrew Ferguson/ Tennessee Athletics
By Jackson Metcalfe
The Lady Vols managed to survive with a 2-2 draw against the Indiana Hoosiers on Thursday night at Regal Soccer Stadium.
In the first half, the Lady Vols struggled to connect as they had a couple close shots that failed to make it to the net early in the half despite having 10 shots and 3 corners. The Lady Vols also was hit with 7 penalties in the first half that crippled them. Then, Indiana would score two goals near back-to-back in minute 33. The first goal came from Paige Webber, who was assisted by Hope Paredes, while the second came from Sofia Black, who was assisted by Marissa Grzesiak. With all this, the Lady Vols were going into the second half fighting an uphill battle.
However, the second half saw the Lady Vols challenge this adversity with a comeback from this deficit as they played aggressive by having 18 shots in the half and 7 corner kicks. There was also a change-up at goalie with Abigail Reisz going in for the second half in place of Ally Zazzara. Tennessee would get their first break at the 52nd minute when forward Kameron Simmonds scored the first goal of the half. Then during the 78th minute, Jaida Thomas, who was assisted by Ally Brown, found the back of the net for a goal to tie the game 2-2. The rest of the half saw both teams playing both aggressively and conservatively to try and score, but also to not be scored on with Sydney Hennessey getting a yellow card in the 90th minute.
After the game, when asked about the comeback, Lady Vols forward Jaida Thomas said, “we knew we could come back, we just had that fight and belief in each other and that really what sparked it, our team energy.”
The Lady Vols will face Radford University at Regal Soccer Stadium on Thursday, September 7th at 7pm in hopes to keep the momentum going.