Show Me State girl shows out for MSU
MaKayla Waldner grew up in her home state of Missouri wanting to play soccer for the Tigers.
The chance never came for Waldner, who is now a sophomore forward for Mississippi State.
On Thursday, Waldner, the girl from the Show Me State, showed Missouri exactly what it missed out on.
Waldner scored a pair of goals that ended up being the difference in State's 3-1 win over Missouri at the MSU Soccer Field.
It was a satisfying feeling for Waldner as she gave Missouri a glimpse of what the Tigers could have had.
“It kind of lights a fire under me,” Waldner said of facing Missouri. “I guess mainly I wanted to show them, ‘I went out of state.' It's nice to show them they missed out on someone from their own state. It's kind of a bragging rights I guess.”
Waldner scored a goal in each half for the Bulldogs (7-1-1, 1-1). She scored for the first time in the 22nd minute when she put one in on a rebound after Payton Gruenewald's header was knocked away by Missouri goalkeeper Kelsey Dossey.
That gave the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead after MSU had already gone up 1-0 in the 17th minute courtesy of a Brooke McKee goal off an assist from Mallory Eubanks.
In the second half, Missouri (5-5-1, 1-1) got on the scoreboard for the only time. Tess Rellihan scored for the Tigers in the 71st minute. However Waldner put the match away for State as she capped the scoring with her final goal in the 84th minute.
“I don't know if it was because it was (against) her home state team, or if it was because of us losing (against Arkansas on Sept. 15) and her reevaluating herself, but the last three training sessions she had were fantastic,” MSU first-year head coach Tom Anagnost said of Waldner. “She was really focused and it was very noticeable by everybody. It wasn't a surprise she did this.”
Waldner had plenty of help knocking off the Tigers. MSU goalkeeper Catalina Perez tied a career high with seven saves. On top of that, Anagnost saw an overall solid performance from his entire squad.
“We wanted to go at (Missouri), be aggressive on the attack and try to keep their attacking players in front of us,” Anagnost said. “We did just an OK job on the defensive side. I thought we did a good job on the attacking side. We definitely left goals on the table, but we got some good performances from kids that came in. It was just, overall, a really good night for our program.”
The evening was especially sweet for Waldner. Once upon a time, she thought she'd be scoring goals for Missouri. Instead, she was putting them in to beat them.
Waldner has bigger goals ahead as she helps MSU through its grueling SEC schedule, but she couldn't help but smile after sending the Tigers out of Starkville with a loss.
“It was always in the back of my head (to play for Missouri), then as I got older I thought, ‘OK, I'll go out of state,'” Waldner said. “It was nice to come out here and beat them.”