Ole Miss Soccer Head Coach Matt Mott met with members of the media on Monday as part of his weekly press conference. Coach Mott recapped the previous week and the Rebels chances at the SEC Tournament.

Opening Statement…
“We are at the end of regular season wise. This past weekend, we went to Georgia lost a 1-0 game there. We played well, just couldn’t find an equalizer after they had scored early in the second half. Came back to play No. 9, I think their RPI is five or six. A very good Arkansas team, who’s always difficult to play against. We lost to them a number of times in a row. We came out, worked hard, and pulled out a 0-0 draw, which got us another point, which kept us in ninth. Right now, we’re in nineth in the league, they take 10 teams to the beach. So, we are trying to get to the conference tournament, which is at Pensacola this year. We have one game left at LSU and still looking for points. So, a win at LSU will lock ourselves into the conference tournament and I think it will be another good result for our resume as we try to get into the NCAA Tournament as well. But LSU needs points too and it will be a tough match. A draw at LSU, then all kinds of things have to happen. So, a bunch of teams fighting for those last few spots and we’re right in the middle. Right now, we are sitting in nineth and again a win will put us in and a draw creates a lot of different scenarios. The team is defending well, hard and tough, we are just lacking a little bit of scoring punch of front and creating some chances. We got to continue to create chances. I thought we had a couple of good chances yesterday against a good Arkansas team but couldn’t find the back of the net, the same thing at Georgia. So again, we’re going to head to LSU wanting to find our scoring punch.”

Speaks on What a loss at LSU would mean for the Rebels chances …
“No, it’s a mess. We’re nineth, Texas A&M is in 10th, Missouri is in 11th and Auburn is in 12th. Those four teams, the five of us, are looking for two spots. For a draw, it depends what Missouri does and what Auburn does. If we lose, there is a chance we’re out but we would have to have a lot of things go against us to be out.”

Discus how big a draw with Arkansas was …
“Yeah massive. I think it should our team we can compete with anybody. They are a top-10 team for a reason. They are having a really good season and it shows us we are at that level, we just got to come out and play at that level quite honestly. Defensively, we’re there we just got to find some goals.”

Was points yesterday a must …
“Yeah, it pretty much was must points at this point for sure. I was happy the way we battled. It’s senior night or senior afternoon I guess and four important seniors to our team in Ashley Orkus, Sydney Michalak, Marykate McGuire and Molly Thompson. We we’re certainly happy to send them out with a result as well. ”

On the importance of defense in the second half …
“A little bit. You know, they make you defend. They put so much pressure on you so you’re looking to try to defend and then counter. That is what our gameplan was. We did a great job of it a couple of times. We almost stole it there at the end with Mo O’Connor in the last 30 seconds. But, they kind of force you to do that the way Arkansas plays. They take a ton of risk for them but it does open them up so if can connect a couple of passes you can you can get at them and create some chances. We almost did it yesterday.”

Speaks on the team’s response the past month …
“It’s interesting, it’s the world of athletics. We started out the season, the best start in program history, and then lost five straight, which we’ve never done in program history. Kind of a crazy year, it’s been up and down but our team has stayed in it and I think a lot of it is our leadership with Mo O’Connor and our leadership committee. Mo O’Connor has been an unbelievable captain, keeping the team in it and I think we have players that care and they want to win and they want to be successful and they are trying like crazy. Bad bounce against Mississippi State and we lose 1-0, bad bounce against Georgia we lose 1-0. We haven’t gotten that bounce yet, bounces got to come our way at some point, we’re working too hard for it not to. We’re still in it, we’re still fighting and we’ve got a good chance at LSU to get ourselves to the beach and create something. Again, with where we fit, another result or two at the beach and we’re going to make the NCAA Tournament