Sept. 17, 2012

Ole Miss head coach Matt Mott met with the media on Monday afternoon and discussed his team’s performance on the season, the matches over the weekend against Arkansas and No. 10 Texas A&M and the upcoming matches against Missouri and Alabama.

Opening Statement:
We posted a split this past weekend. We had a win on Friday night against the University of Arkansas. We won 4-1 and played really well. We had a great crowd of almost 1,400 people. There was a lot of energy in the stadium. We got two goals from Mandy McCalla and two goals from Rafaelle Souza. They’re both leading the conference in goals. They both have nine goals and three assists. It was a good night for us. We were very good defensively. It was a really good total team victory for us. We set the record for wins to start a season.

We turned around Sunday and played a very good Texas A&M team and lost that game 4-0. We played rather well, but four times they were in the box and had four really good finishes. They were a very good team and good teams can punish you like that if you don’t take care of the ball. We were disappointed with that result but there were some positives that came out of it in the way we played and competed. We fought until the end. Performances like that will help us offensively down the road. Unfortunately yesterday it just did not happen.

We go on the road this week for four straight games which will be difficult. We start at Missouri on Friday night. Then we are at Alabama on Sunday. These are two very good teams. Missouri is ranked just in front of us at 21st and they’re playing great. They had a two-win weekend where they beat Auburn and South Carolina on the road. They’re playing very well. They have a high octane offense with very good athletes and we need to be ready for it. We turn around and go to Alabama on Sunday who also is a very good team. They lost to LSU in overtime on Friday and tied Tennessee yesterday. It’s a grind now. Everybody is pretty even. It’s going to be pretty tough for the next 11 games.

On Preparing For Missouri:
We get video of every SEC team. We’ll watch the video and break it down. I played them when I was at Texas four times. They’re a very difficult team. They have high energy and a high work rate. Their front line is very dangerous. It will be a good task for us.

On The Confidence Of Goalkeeper Kelly McCormick:
Kelly is able to flush a performance like that and be able to move on. It’s always tough when you give up goals because the goalkeeper is often times involved in that. She did a lot of good things yesterday. She played really well against Arkansas. She’s played well all season and those goals weren’t her fault that is for sure. She’ll be fine and ready to go.

On Injuries:
We have a lot of people in the training room this week. We’re waiting to get answers from our medical staff on how some of those guys are doing. We’ve got to get rested and healed up so we can be ready to go for Friday.