Shutout ends Lady Vols' lost weekend

Tennessee’s women’s soccer team was looking for a bounce-back game Sunday afternoon after blowing a late lead and losing to Arizona State in overtime Friday night.

It didn’t happen.

UT went 0-for-2 in the Lady Vol Classic with a 1-0 loss to Pepperdine before 692 fans at Regal Soccer Stadium.

“I think we were still feeling sorry for ourselves and trying to get on the same page and jump back into it,” sophomore forward Emily Dowd said, “but we didn’t do it quick enough obviously and it just didn’t go as well as we wanted it to.”

UT coach Angela Kelly often gives a player of the game sticker to one of her players. Not Sunday.

“We didn’t have one,” Kelly said. “Just as if we have a huge win in the future everybody on the team gets a POG (player of game) sticker. I don’t think this was a particularly good performance for the team as a whole and I don’t think anybody deserves a POG sticker.”

The Lady Vols (1-2) play No. 17-ranked Minnesota on Friday night in Minneapolis and play Wisconsin there on Sunday afternoon.

There will be no letting up on the Lady Vols.

“They’re going to come after us next weekend,” Kelly said. “We have a day off (today) and we’ll have a hard day Tuesday. We’re going to go after it. The bottom line is we’re here to win championships, and we’re here to win the SEC regular season and the SEC tournament and the NCAA tournament. We have all of these tough games to prepare.”

Kelly Reilly scored the only goal in the 19th minute when she took a pass from Sophia Medina and tapped it past keeper Molly Baird from 12 yards out.

UT had a couple of chances to tie before halftime. Mick Imgram made a long cross into the box that was headed over the goal by Ali Hall with 7:30 left in the half, and shortly after Jayden Barrett dribbled past a defender and fired a shot from 25 yards that sailed over the goal.

Pepperdine finished with 13 shots (seven on goal) to UT’s six shots (one on goal).

“I don’t feel we created enough for ourselves today with as much talent as we have,” Dowd said, “but with what we created today we should have finished some, but we were trying.”

UT is still without two injured starters, junior forward Anna Fisher and sophomore midfielder Chelsea Hatcher, and junior forward/midfielder Julie Edwards returned from an injury Friday night and played Sunday. Tanya Emerson, a junior who starts at midfield, missed both weekend matches due to illness.

“There’s no excuses,” Kelly said. “We have a ton of talent on this team and with the injuries we still have enough talent to put together a better performance than we had.”

Notebook: Kansas beat Arizona State 1-0 to win the Classic with a 2-0 record. Pepperdine and Arizona State were both 1-1. … Dowd, Baird, and Hall were on the all-tournament team.

Dave Link is a freelance contributor.