Memphis Men’s Soccer Drops Season Opener to Lipscomb

Memphis played host to Lipscomb out at the Billy Murphy Track & Soccer Stadium (soon to be renamed Liza Wellford Fletcher Stadium) on Thursday night. Unfortunately, the Tiger fell in their season opener by a score of 2-1. It was a game that saw the Tigers start slow and only really pick up the pace when it was just a little too late.

“Obviously disappointed.” said Coach Richard Mulrooney. “You never want to start the season 0-1. On the flip side, Lipscomb’s a solid team. They have been for the past couple years. I think they came out organized and more prepared than we were at the beginning of the game. It probably took us until the last 10 or 15 minutes of the first half to really start playing smarter and start playing with a little bit of energy to match what they were.”

The Tigers fell behind in the 23rd minute off a fantastic goal. They got to halftime at 1-0 but found themselves down 2-0 less than ten minutes into the second half. They didn’t take long to respond though, as Lleyton Imparato halved the deficit just five minutes later. The Tigers had a multitude of chances to tie the game, but either put them over the bar or saw Lipscomb’s keeper make a fantastic save. Those missed chances and great saves kept the score at 2-1 the rest of the way.

“Yeah give him credit.” Mulrooney said. “I’d have to go back and look at the video. I sometimes, if we don’t score and there’s a save, I’ll move on and think it’s a corner and focus. But you’re right. Thinking back to it, give him credit. Those were some nice saves. Give Justin credit too. I think he had a save mid to late first half that kept us in the game. That’s what keepers do. Justin played great tonight. Really happy with him. Like I said, looking back at it, I’m disappointed but we didn’t play awful. First 20-25 minutes left a lot to be desired and I hope we learn from that. But after that point I liked the movement, I liked the energy, I liked the battle, and I liked that we created opportunities.”

Fortunately, Coach Mulrooney isn’t concerned about dropping the opener to be a big problem and points to the culture of the program as a big reason why.

“On a night like tonight we’re all disappointed. And as I told the guys, ‘Go home. Handle it in the right way.’ We don’t get too high on wins, we don’t get too low on losses. I don’t remember the last time there was an NCAA champion or a conference champion that was undefeated. Nobody likes to start the year 0-1 but in saying that we know what we’ve got here. There’s a belief and a culture. I told the guys when they walked off the field, ‘Head up. Be upset, but be proud of yourself. Never let yourself down and we’re going to stick together as a team.’ And I truly beleive that’s what’s going to get us through these hard times.”

The Tigers will look to get into the win column when they host Evansville at the Billy Murphy Track & Soccer Stadium on Sunday at 6pm.