San Diego Union-Tribune

Vanderbilt could call on a female kicker today

We just couldn’t let this stuff go …

- Sarah Fuller

Women’s soccer player will don a football uniform today for Vanderbilt and is poised to become the first woman to play in a Power 5 game when the Commodores visit Missouri, The Associated Press reports.

“Let’s make history,” senior Fuller wrote Friday on Twitter with a photo of herself wearing a football jersey with a soccer ball between her feet while holding a football in her hands.

No woman has appeared in an Southeaste­rn Conference football game or for any Power 5 gridiron team. Liz Heaston became the first woman to score with two extra points for Willamette in NAIA on Oct. 18, 1997.

Katie Hnida was the first woman to score at the Football Bowl Subdivisio­n level with two extra points for New Mexico on Aug. 30, 2003. April Goss was the second with an extra point for Kent State in 2015. Tonya Butler was the first woman to kick a field goal in an NCAA game for Division II West Alabama on Sept. 13, 2003.

The senior from Wylie, Texas, made three saves last weekend as Vandy upset topseeded Arkansas 3-1 in women’s soccer to earn the program’s first Southeaste­rn Conference tourney title since ’94. Fuller played every minute of the tournament and said it’s an honor Vanderbilt called on her to help out.

She will be wearing “Play Like A Girl” on the back of her helmet.

“I think it’s amazing and incredible. But I’m also trying to separate that because I know this is a job I need to do and I want to help the team out and I want to do the best that I can,” Fuller said. “Placing that historical aspect aside just helps me focus in on what I need to do. I don’t want to let them down in anyway.

COVID-19 protocols and restrictio­ns have left coach Derek Mason with a limited number of specialist­s available against Missouri. That’s why he reached out to soccer coach Darren Ambrose for some help.

And if she is called upon to assist, Fuller will make history.

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