COLUMBIA. MO – Mizzou Soccer wrapped up its non-conference schedule with a 1-0 victory over Kansas City on Sunday evening at Audrey J Walton Stadium. The Tigers will now turn their attention to SEC play later this week.
The Tigers finished up a slate of games that saw them go 3-3-1 through their first month of play. With losses to ranked opponents, Saint Louis (No. 23), and Memphis (No. 15), along with their most recent defeat at the hands of Illinois last Thursday, 2-0. The Tigers did, however, pick up wins over Youngstown State and Missouri State in that stretch before tonight’s win.
“In the second half of SLU, we thought we showed a great deal of resilience,” said head coach Stefanie Golan. “We showed we can have a 90-minute mentality against a really strong opponent. Then, being able to respond against Missouri State the way that we did was fantastic. Didn’t love the Illinois performance, and then we came out tonight and didn’t love the performance but liked the results.”
Golan saw her squad record a monster 19 shots on goal, yet never saw one to the back of the net following junior Mia Yang’s early score just three minutes into the game.
Yang would put the Tigers ahead, and they never looked back from that moment. Mizzou controlled possession for a large majority of the first and second half, spending a lot of time pinballing across the box but never finding any pay dirt for insurance goals.
Junior goalkeeper Kate Phillips, however, didn’t seem to need that insurance as she stood tall between the posts for 90 minutes without much of a fuss. She saved the only SOG from the Roos and seemed to find every lane up the field to fit the ball in for her midfielders, helping to keep the ball in Mizzou’s possession all night.
While the Tigers’ inability to capitalize on opportunities tonight didn’t cost them, those struggles could have different results against an uber-competitive SEC in 2025.
“Yeah, we know the SEC will always bring hard challenges,” said Yang. “But we’re ready for it, we’ve gone heavy in our practices, and all the games we’ve lost have been such close games. We’re learning from those mistakes and ready to take on all the SEC teams.”
The Tigers will open their SEC schedule this Friday with a matchup against defending conference champions Texas at home. Before hosting the number two-ranked team in the nation, in Tennessee next Thursday, the Tigers will also take on ranked opponents Vanderbilt (No. 25) and Arkansas (No. 8). Mizzou will also take on Kentucky, Mississippi State, LSU, Alabama, Texas A&M, and Auburn in their conference schedule.
“I expect us to turn it on,” said Golan. “We open up SEC play with a Texas team I think is vulnerable. Can we go at them on our front foot? I thought we played well at Texas last year; we were unfortunate to come away with the result that we did. For us, it’s every single day. Can we get a little bit better? So our training mentality this week is going to be huge.”
The Tigers will look to “turn it on” later this week back at Audrey J Walton on Sept. 12 when the Longhorns pay a visit to Columbia. Mizzou has struggled against higher-end opponents this season and hasn’t given much reason to believe it can compete heavily in the SEC in 2025.