Troy Closes Spring Slate Saturday at Mississippi State

TROY, Ala. -- The Troy soccer program closes out its 2021 spring schedule Saturday afternoon with a 3 p.m. contest at Mississippi State.

Saturday's match will be live streamed on the SEC Network + and live stats will be available on TroyStats.com.

Troy has started the spring season 2-0 after defeating Alabama State (3-1) and Mercer (1-0, OT) in their first two matches. In the 3-1 victory at Alabama State, Melissa Kuya-Strobel opened the scoring in the ninth minute, while sophomore Taytum Terrell found the back of the net twice.

In that match sophomore Gaby Cossette made a pair of saves to earn the victory.

The Trojans last spring match occurred back on Feb. 28 at Mercer. In that game, the Trojans used a free kick in the 96th-minute from Alisa Detlefsen to Kate Eubanks to hold on for golden-goal victory. In that match, Cossette made six clutch saves to earn her first career shutout.

HOW TO FOLLOW:
TROY (4-9-1) at Mississippi State (4-4-3)
DATE: March 20, 2021
KICKOFF: 3 PM
LOCATION: Starkville, Miss. (MSU Soccer Field)
WATCH:
LIVE STATS: Live Stats
SERIES: Mississippi State leads the series 2-0-1

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT:
Mississippi State also enters Saturday's match having won back-to-back matches overall, and with a record of 4-4-3. The Bulldogs streak began with a 3-1 victory over Louisiana and continued with a 2-0 victory over Sun Belt regular season champion Arkansas State. In the fall, the Bulldogs went 2-4-3 and played an SEC-only schedule.
So far this season, sophomore Onyi Echegini has scored a team-best four goals. Echegini scored two of those four goals in MSU's 3-1 victory over Louisiana. In net, the Bulldogs have been led by freshman Maddy Anderson who has played all but 67 minutes of action for MSU. Anderson has allowed 16 goals and made 42 saves overall.

STORYLINES:

THAT'S MORE LIKE IT:
After allowing just 16 goals in 18 regular season matches, the Trojans allowed 22 goals in 12 matches this fall. This spring the Trojans have allowed just one goal in two matches. Back on Feb. 28 the Trojans and goalie Gaby Cossette recorded a clean-sheet. The clean-sheet was Cossette's first-career shutout and the Trojans third of the season.

GETTING HOT:
Winners of three of four, the Troy Trojans have won back-to-back matches for the first time this season. The streak started with the Trojans 1-0 Sun Belt Conference Tournament
victory over Texas State.

OUT OF OUR LEAGUE:
The Trojans have returned to non-conference play for the first time since Sept. 15, 2019. The Trojans are riding a four-game non-conference winning streak and are 7-1-2 in their last 10 non-conference matchups. The Trojans played a 10-match Sun Belt Conference schedule before playing a pair of games at the 2020 Sun Belt Conference Tournament.

LUCKY NUMBER 13:
Troy by virtue of its 3-1 victory over the Lady Hornets back on Feb. 28 improved to 13-0 all-time against the in-state rival.

ALL AROUND ME ARE FAMILIAR FACES:
Troy returns 22 of its 28 players from the 2020 fall. The Trojans return all six players who scored in 2020, including junior center back Kate Eubanks, freshman Regielly Halldorsdottir and sophomore Melissa Kuya-Strobel who each scored a pair of goals. Troy also returns junior Alisa Detlefsen who recorded a team-best two assists in the fall.

SET PIECE SUCCESS:
With Eubanks' golden-goal winner back on Feb. 28 at Mercer, the Trojans have now scored 17 set piece goals over their last 29 games and have scored six of their 13 goals off of set pieces.

GED TALKS:
"Any opportunity that we can get to play a power-five opponent is a good opportunity for the girls. It's a great way to finish out spring and it's always a great thing when players get to compete against their former institutions like Chloe Iuliano will. But it's also a good chance for the players to get to see where we are in relation to the rest of the Sun Belt. We know that they're a well-coached team and we're going to have our hands full. But it should be a fun experience for the players. Given everything that is going on it's a great achievement to get to play. They're athletic and incredibly physical. They're not afraid of getting stuck in which is something we're going relish tomorrow. Mississippi State is a good team, but I think we have the players to take advantage of some of their weaknesses."

On the spring results thus far:
"It's been excellent so far. We've introduced a couple of new players who have come in most likely earned a starting spot in the fall. If not, they're going to help strengthen our depth and increase the competition level. We've seen that already this spring where players that used to start aren't anymore, so they need to work even harder to get their spot back. We have a brand new group of players and to get a pair of wins on the road in difficult conditions says a lot about the kids that we have in our program. We have just two seniors leaving us this spring, so I think our program is set up going forward to have a lot of success.

Troy Closes Spring Slate Saturday at Mississippi State

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Players Mentioned

Gaby Cossette

Alisa Detlefsen

Kate Eubanks

Regielly Halldorsdottir

Chloe Iuliano

Melissa Kuya-Strobel

Taytum Terrell

Troy University Athletics