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A spirit that is not afraid

Soccer team kicks into high gear

Sophomore midfielder Ana Cate defends the ball from Ole Miss junior Kendyl Mygatt. (Katie Shelton / Photo Staff)
Sophomore midfielder Ana Cate defends the ball from Ole Miss junior Kendyl Mygatt. (Katie Shelton / Photo Staff)

Auburn soccer will face the University of Tennessee in Thursday's game at the Auburn Soccer Complex.

After scoring two draws in its most recent games versus Vanderbilt and the University of Kentucky, Auburn currently stands at 9-5-2, 3-3-2 SEC.

Tennessee's current record is 7-8-1, 4-3-1 SEC.

Tennessee will travel to the Plains after two losses to South Carolina and Florida.

Auburn pulled a win over Florida last week, but also lost to South Carolina.

Coach Karen Hoppa said Sunday that the team had several things it needed to improve on in this week's practice.

"One of the things we've got to work on is our finishing," Hoppa said. "We get a lot of chances in the course of the game, and we don't even get them on frame. We don't even get them on the face of the goal."

Tennessee's coach Angela Kelly also cited the need for improvement on finishing in an article from utladyvols.com.

"We need to have a killer instinct," Kelly said. "That comes from individuals who need to take care of finishing opportunities. There's a tentativeness right now to put the ball in the back of the net,"

Tennessee currently ranks fourth in the SEC East, while Auburn is second behind LSU in the SEC West.

Last week, Tennessee midfielder Caroline Brown was chosen as SEC freshman soccer player of the week.

She has made three goals and two assists in the 2010 season and is now in fourth place (counting league contests only) in SEC statistics in goals per match.

Hoppa said Sunday that the process to prepare for Tennessee would be the same as preparations for every team.

"We have a lot of film on them," Hoppa said.

"We'll watch our film from this past weekend, and compare it to the Tennessee film and create a game plan from that. That's kind of the process we usually go through."

Defender Sammy Towne also commented on where she thought the team needed to focus this week.

"We've just got to stay consistent in the back and make sure we don't have any mistakes," Towne said. "We do have a young team, so it is a little more difficult because a lot of playing in the SEC comes from experience. We've really go to play these next three games like they're playoff games because we aren't in a situation right now to be able to lose or tie."

Sophomore midfielder Ana Cate said the team will be glad to be back at home after two away games.

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"We miss our fans," Cate said.


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