AUBURN, Ala. – No. 23 Auburn soccer (4-0-4) will begin Southeastern Conference play on the road at Missouri (3-3-1) Friday, Sept. 16.
The game will be broadcast on SEC Network+ with Nate Gatter and Simon Rose on the call. First kick from Audrey J. Walton Stadium is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT.
"It's a new season," Tigers head coach Karen Hoppa said. "We're going into the week with a 0-0 mindset. It doesn't matter what any team has done leading up to this point. Now, we start the gauntlet of 10-straight SEC games, so we've got to make sure that we're learning and growing each week so that we can rise to the challenge."
Mizzou leads the all-time series 4-3-1, but Auburn has walked away victorious in three of the last four meetings. Both Tiger teams last squared off in 2018, when the Orange & Blue picked up the 1-0 win in Columbia.
"This is going to be a very different Missouri team than the ones we've faced in the past," Hoppa said. "We haven't seen them since 2018, and they're under a new head coach who did some really great things at her previous school, so we know we're going to be put to the test."
A season ago, Auburn capped a 5-4-1 SEC slate with a trio of all-conference honorees and a No. 5 seed into the SEC tournament while Missouri went 3-7 in conference play, missing out on the tournament and earning a single All-SEC selection.
Auburn comes off a 1-0-1 week after besting UMass Lowell 4-1 and matching RV Samford 1-1. Junior forward Maddie Simpson was named to Top Drawer Soccer's Team of the Week as an honorable mention after netting two goals and assisting a third over the two-game span.
Complementary to some bright offensive outings, the Auburn back line has been the strength of the Tigers this season. Allowing just three opponent goals, Auburn ranks fourth in the conference and 12th in the country with a 0.375 goals against average. Manning the net, junior goalkeeper Maddie Prohaska posts a 0.420 GAA herself, chasing down the single season record of 0.680 set by Megan Rivera in 2003.
The week for the opposing Tigers consisted of a 2-1 win versus Kansas and a 1-0 loss on the road against Illinois.
Freshman midfielder Keegan Good and junior defender Grace Pettet lead the Missouri squad with a pair of goals this season. In the net, redshirt-freshman Bella Hollenbach has played every minute of the year, conceded nine goals while making 21 saves and posting one shutout.
Following the bout at Mizzou, the Tigers will trek to Fayetteville to play No. 14 Arkansas Thursday, Sept. 22 at 6:30 p.m. CT.
