Moving past a draw against the West Virginia Mountaineers and and a loss against the Ohio State Buckeyes, the Auburn Tigers (4-2-2) look to get back on track and begin their SEC season on the front foot Friday.
The Tigers will face off against the Mississippi State Bulldogs (5-1-2) to start their SEC journey for this season. This meeting will mark the 27th time that the Tigers and Bulldogs take on each other, with the Tigers dominating the series with a record of 19-5-3. For the Tigers head coach Karen Hoppa, this will be the 23rd time she coaches the Tigers against the Bulldogs, coming into the match with a record of 17-4-2. Contrastingly, the Bulldogs head coach James Armstrong will be heading into this match for only the fifth time as he holds a losing record against the Tigers of 1-2-1.
Auburn’s offense has struggled to put the ball in the back of the net in its last two games, taking 19 shots with 10 of those on target but scoring only one goal, courtesy of junior forward/midfielder Carly Thatcher. The Tigers will want to be more efficient when attacking and will want to get senior midfielder Anna Haddock, who leads the team in assists and fifth year midfielder/forward Sydney Richards, who’s tied for most goals, into dangerous positions. Regardless, they both lead the team in points with seven and six, respectively.
Defensively, Auburn will be looking to contain Mississippi State and avoid conceding a goal for the third game in a row. Senior goalkeeper Maddie Prohaska will be looking to keep her fourth clean sheet of the season and keep up the pace to beat her personal record of seven shutouts in a season.
The Mississippi State Bulldogs are currently 5-1-2 but boast a dominant home record of 4-1, with their only loss coming against the Iowa Hawkeyes. The Bulldogs are currently unbeaten this month after they beat the University of Miami, tied the University of South Alabama and most recently, won against the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Mississippi State will be hoping to start a winning streak against the Tigers and earn its first win against Auburn since 2019 when the Bulldogs beat the Tigers 3-2 in Starkville, Mississippi.
Auburn will need to be wary of Mississippi State’s offense as it has only failed to score in two games this season. Junior forward Aitana Martinez-Montoya currently leads Mississippi State in goals with three but trailing behind her is sophomore forward Maggie Wadsworth and junior midfielder Ilana Izquierdo who both have two goals each. Wadsworth leads the team in assists on the season with two assists and is tied for the most points with Martinez-Montoya, sharing six each.
On the defensive end, the Bulldogs have only conceded four goals throughout their eight games with senior goalkeeper Maddy Anderson keeping four clean sheets due to her 22 saves so far. Anderson is ranked No. 2 in saves in the SEC this season.
The Auburn Tigers will play the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Friday, Sept. 15 at 6:30 p.m. CST on SECN+.
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Hector Hernandez is a freshman from Huntsville, Alabama, majoring in building science. He joined The Plainsman in fall 2023.
