By Aidan Corley
If the Lady Vols and head coach Joe Kirt get any sleep tonight, they will wake up in a cold sweat at the thought of Mississippi State. The Bulldogs (7-1-2) continue to be kryptonite as they held No. 9 Tennessee (6-0-3) to a 0-0 draw Thursday night in Regal Stadium. Kirt remains winless against them through four games as head coach of Tennessee.
Mississippi State ended Tennessee’s season in 2024, handed the Lady Vols their first loss a season ago in heartbreaking fashion, and tonight frustrated and outplayed them from start to finish.
Kirt could not have summed it up any better postgame.
“Good to be back home at Regal, good to get a shutout, that was about the best of our performance tonight was those two things,” Kirt said. “Not our team. I didn’t get our team prepared to show up and represent this program and department accordingly. Thankfully we got a point out of it.”
It would be generous to call the first half a performance, given that Tennessee did little more than show up. There were no glossy numbers to hide behind in the box score as the Lady Vols did not record a single shot in the first half. It marked the first time Tennessee had made it through the first 45 minutes with zero shots since October of 2023.
Dark Mode was just supposed to be for the kits; they weren’t supposed to actually disappear on the field.
The Bulldogs controlled the game from kickoff and suffocated Tennessee for most of it. It was a physical and emotional game that played right into Mississippi State’s favor. A couple of early Tennessee fouls gave Mississippi State some dangerous set-piece opportunities, one leading to the first big chance of the game from a corner that resulted in an important block off a Bulldog shot.
That would be the story for the remainder of the half. Tennessee was unable to break Mississippi State’s press and eventually gave the ball away. The Bulldogs created a scoring chance but couldn’t capitalize. Lots of fouls, lots of words exchanged.
The one time Tennessee found themselves with a dangerous set piece of their own, the delivery found nobody and sailed into the trees behind Regal Stadium: Tennessee’s first-half display in a nutshell.
“We can organize, we can talk about different shapes and where we want to try and attack and how we want to break teams down, but if we’re not going to compete, none of that matters,” Kirt said. “We got outcompeted from the opening whistle. Credit to [Mississippi State]; they were tremendous at it. Took it to us on our home field. Got to have a little bit more pride representing this field and this stadium. It starts with me, making sure they’re ready to go and they got to do their job and compete”
Tennessee showed a few signs of life in the second half. Olivia Feagin recorded the first shot for the Lady Vols in the 47th minute, and they established some possession in the following stages of the game.
Even then, the cutting edge was a lot more like cutting with a spoon than a knife. Mississippi State responded to every question Tennessee could ask. A block for every shot, a clearance for every cross.
The closest Tennessee came to picking the lock was midway through the second half from a Bella Smith corner. Devin Davis got her head to the ball before anyone else, but the ball was blocked near the goal line and bounced around the box; the Bulldogs were more alert and managed to clear their lines.
Tennessee’s lone shot on target came from Kylee Simmons late in the half, but it was a comfortable save for goalkeeper Jenny Harrison.
A game with 30 fouls between both teams reached a boiling point in the 76th minute when Tennessee’s Nyla Blue was issued a red card for a hard tackle on a Mississippi State attacker. The Lady Vols finished the game down a player and still managed to add another point in the SEC standings.
Some draws feel like a team let all three points slip away, but Tennessee got away with one in Regal Stadium
“Based on our performance, a point gained,” Kirt said. “I don’t think we deserved to win anything tonight based on that performance.”
UP NEXT: The Lady Vols remain unbeaten through nine games for the first time since 2017, despite the poor display, setting up a big rivalry game against No. 3 Vanderbilt.
“Vandy is a huge rival for us; if you can’t get up for that game it’s going to be a long year,” Kirt said. “They’re really talented, but to get them at home should inspire us to come out and do the things that we didn’t do at a high level tonight. They’re certainly capable of it; they’ve done it all year. Teams have tough nights; that’s the reality of a season. We got a point out of it, so that’s definitely a positive, but we got to get it right and get back to us. We weren’t us tonight, and that starts with our effort and our fight.”