NCAA Tournament First Round

 NM State (13-4-3, 7-3-2 WAC) vs. #7 Mississippi State (11-5-4, 4-4-2 SEC)

Friday, Nov. 11 | 2:00 p.m. (MT) | MSU Soccer Complex | Starkville, Mississippi

STARKVILLE, Miss. – In his fifth season at the helm, Head Coach Rob Baarts has put together a banner year for the NM State women's soccer team. Along with securing the winningest season in program history, NM State secured its first ever Conference Championship with a 1-0 win over Utah Valley in the Western Athletic Conference Final this past weekend.

This marked the Aggies 11th shutout of the season and the third consecutive in the WAC Tournament.

Now the Aggies will head to Mississippi to take on the Bulldogs in the first round of the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament for their first taste of postseason soccer. 

FOLLOW ALONG

• Aggie Nation can stream all this week's action through ESPN+
• Additionally, fans can follow the action through Live Stats thanks to Statbroadcast

KICKOFF

• Kickoff is set for 2:00 p.m. (MT) from the MSU Soccer Complex in Starkville, Miss.
• The Aggies are riding a six-game winning streak, with wins over Sam Houston (1-0), Grand Canyon (2-1), and California Baptist (2-1) in the regular season, while collecting wins over California Baptist (2-1, 2OT), Seattle U (1-0) and Utah Valley (1-0) in the WAC Tournament.
• MSU secured an at large bid into this year's tournament after going 11-5-4 overall and 4-4-2 in SEC play.
• This will be the first time in four years the Bulldogs play postseason soccer. The last time the team made the NCAA Tournament was in 2018 when they lost 1-0 (2OT) to Lipscomb.

LAST TIME OUT | NM State 1, Utah Valley 0 | November 6, 2022 | Seattle, WA

• The Aggies secured their first ever WAC Championship in shutout fashion when they beat the Wolverines in Seattle last sunday to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
• With this win, NM State moved to 13-4-3 overall.  
• UVU outshot NM State 18-8. 
• The Wolverines had six shots on goal to the Aggies three 
• Only three corner kicks were taken in the match - the wolverines (2) took just one more corner than the Aggies (1).  
• Sophomore Tati Jerman recorded the second carreer goal in as many games. The score came in 44th-minute of the match and would become the game winning score after the Wolverines failed to get anything to go into the net the remaider of the match. 
• Makenna Gottschalk recorded her 11th shutout of the season.  
• Four yellow cards handed out during the match: NM State bench (77'), UVU's Faith Webber (80'), NM States Sofia Beerworth (89') and UVU's Megan Sullivan (90').

HISTORY VS. MSU

This marks the first meeting between the two programs.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS

• MSU finished second in the SEC West this season, just behind Alabama who ranks fourth in the country. 
• The Bulldogs offence is led by the dynamic scoring duo of Maggie Wadsworth and Haley McWhirter. The two have combined for 15 goals this season and eight assists. Wadsworth leads the team in scores with eight. 
• MSU has played three different goalies this season with Maddy Anderson and Titus Mac taking the majority of the minutes. The pair of keepers have teamed up for 57 total saves, ten shutouts, and have a combined .796 save percentage.