Soccer ties Ole Miss, 1-1

CW / Hannah Saad

Alabama soccer tied Ole Miss 1-1 after two overtimes in Oxford, Mississippi, on Thursday.

The draw is the Crimson Tide’s third tie of the season. Both teams earn one point towards the conference standings race.

“Playing on the road in this league is not easy,” coach Wes Hart said in a release. “I loved our response coming out of halftime. We had some great moments in the second half and felt we could have scored a couple goals. Their goalkeeper made some huge saves. We kept at it and eventually were rewarded.”

Alabama started off the game strong on offense. However, it was Ole Miss who scored first, with a long shot by senior midfielder Julia Phillips finding the back of the net in the 19th minute.

At the half, the Rebels led 1-0.

The Crimson Tide scored the game-tying goal in the 83rd minute off of a cross sent by junior forward Casey Wertz to sophomore forward Gabby Duca, who plunked it off of the Ole Miss goalkeepers hands, rolling into the net. The game remained tied through regulation, and the game proceeded into the Crimson Tide’s fourth overtime game of the season.

After two 10-minute overtime periods and aggressive play by both teams, no one was able to capitalize and the game ended in a 1-1 tie.

“It would have been nice to get out of Oxford with three points, but we will take the point and move on to the next,” Hart said.

With the draw, Alabama (8-4-3, 3-2-2 SEC) is fourth in the SEC standings with 11 points and three games remaining. Ole Miss (8-4-3, 2-2-3 SEC) ) is tied with Auburn for sixth with nine points.

On the evening, the Crimson Tide outshot the Rebels 20-17, with 11 of those shots being on goal. Freshman midfielder Carlee Giammona led the team with six shots, with freshman midfielder Serena Pham finishing second with three.

Freshman goalkeeper A.J. Crooks, in her first appearance since being named the SEC Freshman of the Week, finished the game with one goal allowed and five saves, including a game-saving full-stretch save late in the second overtime.

Up next, Alabama will play its last game road game of the regular season when it takes on Missouri in Columbia on Oct. 24. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT, and will be broadcast on SEC Network+.