Vanderbilt kicker scores `Power Five' football first
Sarah Fuller made history again Saturday, when she became the first woman to score in a Power Five conference football game by kicking a pair of extra points in Vanderbilt's 42-17 loss to Tennessee.
“I was just super excited when we got that touchdown. I was ready to go out and roll,” she said.
“The guys were super pumped up and encouraging, so I was very excited to get out there and finally do what I've been training for the past few weeks.”
Last month, her squib kick to open the second half at Missouri made her the first woman to appear in a Power Five game. She missed the chance to score when Missouri shut out Vanderbilt, 41-0.
On Vanderbilt's third drive Saturday, after Ken Seals threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Cam Johnson late in the first quarter, she converted the extra point and pumped her fist as the ball sailed
over the crossbar. An official gave her the ball on the sideline.
She added another extra point in the fourth quarter.
Fuller was a goalkeeper for Vanderbilt's soccer team, which won
the SEC tournament championship last month. She never scored on the pitch, but she compared her extra point attempts to her experience in the net, where each challenge presented two outcomes.
“I'd say it's like one of those game-winning saves you have to make,” she said.
“It could go either way at that point and you got to make that big-time save, so that's probably the closest I'd compare it to.”
Fuller became the fourth woman to play in a major college football game — following Ashley Martin of Jacksonville State in 2001, Katie Hnida of New Mexico in 2002 and April Goss of Kent State in 2015 — but the first to appear in the Power Five, the sport's top tier, on Nov. 28 at Missouri.
She remained on the roster even after Vanderbilt's other kickers came out of quarantine and rejoined the team.
Vanderbilt fell to 0-9 on Saturday; coach Derek Mason was fired the day after the Missouri loss.
The Commodores are scheduled to travel to Georgia for their season finale next Saturday.