Oct. 1, 2012

Ole Miss head coach Matthew Mott met with members of the media on Monday to discuss the team's weekend matches on the road at No. 24 Florida and Auburn this past weekend, and the upcoming contests at home against Georgia and Kentucky.

Opening Statement:
This weekend we went to Florida. We played down there Friday night and lost 3-1. We got a good goal from Rafaelle Souza. There were a couple of unlucky bounces for us down there to get behind. Florida is a good team. We certainly fought hard, worked hard and just weren’t able to get any more goals. We weren’t able to get enough possession to get back into the game.

Then we headed to Auburn yesterday. We lost 1-0 there. We played fairly well for the entire match. We just could not execute in the final third to get a goal. It’s tough on the road. You have to get two goals a lot of times if you want to win on the road. They countered late and got a goal. It was definitely disappointing by the way we played, competed and fought. We just weren’t able to execute. With this team we’ve been able to find goals for most of the season. This Sunday we were unable to do that which is disappointing.

We have to move forward. The SEC doesn’t get any easier. This weekend Georgia comes to town. We’re happy to be back at home. We play Georgia at 7 p.m. on Friday night. That will be a good match for us. They’re a good team. We’re going to have to execute a lot better than we did over the weekend as we get prepared for Georgia. We will go to work this week at practice looking to improve on that part. I like the fight of the team. We’re fighting hard and working hard. The effort is really, really good. We just have to be a little cleaner in our attacking.

On The Quick Start To The Season And The Change Of Getting Into SEC Play:
“We’ve taken some injuries that have certainly set us back a little bit. Not having Jen Miller available this weekend was tough for us at attacking mid. She settles things down a lot for us. That was definitely part of it. It’s certainly tougher in the SEC. We’ve been in every game. It’s going to start to click and we’ll start to get the results we’re looking for.”

On Putting The Weekend Behind Them And Moving Forward:
“They’re very frustrated after yesterday, no question about it. That’s a game that we felt like we could have gotten some points at. We as the coaching staff were frustrated. I felt like that is almost as well as we’ve played in the conference. To get away without being able to score was definitely frustrating. We’re not even halfway through the conference season yet. If it ended today, we’d be in the conference tournament. That’s important for us. We’re right there in the middle of the whole thing. It’s not time to push the panic button, but we have to play better.”

On Being Back At Home This Weekend:
“We talked about it and said we felt like we haven’t even been home lately. We got back late last Sunday night and turned around and left early Thursday morning. They’re certainly excited about being home, sleeping in their own beds and getting ready for a big game against Georgia on Friday night.”