Vanderbilt Soccer Advances to the Elite Eight, Football dominant, set to take on some other team, Men’s and Women’s Basketball

Super midfielder, junior Melania Fullerton, from? Big D, converted a 15 feet right footed shot in the 65th minute of our match with LSU to enable our women to defeat the Bengal Tigers, 1-0, and advance to the Elite 8, where we will face TCU Friday at 6:30 P.M. at the Vanderbilt Soccer Complex. That game will be broadcast by ESPN+.

What an effort by Melania and her teammates.We played LSU three times this season and won all three matches, and they have been extremely hard fought. Our 8th ranked Commodores moved to 18-3-2 on the season. What an incredible season by the women and Coach Darren Ambrose. It was electric at the Soccer Complex yesterday. There’s so much amazing stuff going on in our athletic program with our phenomenal football team, our outstanding men’s and women’s basketball teams, which are both undefeated, and this incredible soccer team.

Our superbly clutch goal keeper, Sara Wojdelko, made the save of the year on a Bengal Tigers’ penalty kick from 10 yards out. It was just Sara and the LSU striker. Sara dove to her right and knocked the ball down and away from the goal to secure our lead after Melania’s goal. Our Women held on for another historic victory in this program’s history. This is our first time in the Elite Eight.

This is an electric team to watch that has a real shot of capturing the national championship. I know these young women will keep their work ethic strong. They just have an incredible, really magical, aura about them. Will let you know how we fare on Friday Night’s game; either later Friday Night or Saturday A.M.

Diego threw for 484 yards on 33-of-39 passes, and 5, 6’s, and ran for another 6, totaling 532 yards of  total offense (15 totes, 48 yards) in an almost super human performance leading our team to a 45-17 dismantling of Kentucky at FirstBank last Saturday afternoon.

Cornerback Martel Hight picked off two passes. It was awesome to see the man get those ints. He’s an interception machine when he’s playing his best. Concentrating on defense is where Martel shines. He’s not playing any more wide receiver as Junior, Eli, Tre Richardson, Richie Hoskins etc. have the pass catching duties handled.

Martel is a stud in the secondary. It was hard covering Auburn’s Cam Coleman, he’s a machine, but Martel, I’m sure, would love another shot at him and he more than made up for it last Saturday.

Diego, Martel and left tackle Isaia Glass were selected as SEC Offensive, Defensive and Offensive lineman of the week, respectively. The whole team deserved awards for that effort. What a terrific team.

Saturday, 2:30 P.M. CT, Eastern part of the state with some team with some name, I can’t remember. ESPN will broadcast. Let’s do more work and get to 10-2 and 6-2 in the SEC and make it next to impossible for the Committee to keep us out of the playoff. Also, Diego needs to be in New York on December 13th. I know Fernando Mendoza, Julian Sayen and Jerermiyah Love have put up stellar numbers for Indiana, Ohio State and Notre Dame, respectively, but does anybody dominate games more than Diego? That’s an emphatic NO. He’s the best player in the country and deserves the Heisman. But let’s take care of business in that other part of the state and make it impossible for both committees, the Playoff and the Heisman, to turn us down. We’ve got a team that Belongs in the Playoff and a quarterback in Diego Pavia who deserves the Heisman.

Also, Clark is up for several coaching awards. What a job our awesome head coach, Coach Lea, has done at Vanderbilt University. Candice needs to get Clark signed up for the rest of his career. 

I’ll be in touch on bball. The Men take on Western Kentucky Wednesday at 11 A.M. CT on ESPN in the Bahamas in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament. We’ll play Thursday and Friday as well. We are 5-0 and Western Ky is 4-0, so we need to play well. We are leading the country in scoring at 103 per game. Our now 24th ranked (AP Poll) Commodores can get after it on D too. Tyler Tanner is a stealing machine. Love what the fellas are doing. Will definitely keep you posted on our guys’ ventures this week in the Bahamas. Coach Mark Byington is a spectacular coach and our team is also spectacular.

The Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball team is 6-0 after Sunday’s 99-43 victory over Tennessee State. Superb sophomore guard Mikayla Blakes finished with 24 and 4 steals, and electric freshman point guard Aubrey Galvan added 16 and 15 assists. That’s mind blowingly great. 

The women play Oregon State at the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Thursday at 7 P.M. CT on ESPN+. Love what Coach Shea Ralph has got cookin at Memorial. 

Happy Thanksgiving.

Will have college football write up/Predictions Wednesday on my All Sports Blog if you’re interested.

Anchor Down.