Bulldogs tie No. 17 ECCC

PERKINSTON — The Mississippi Gulf Coast women's soccer team played their way into Friday's MACCC clash with East Central, slowly growing in confidence.

They wound up with a well-deserved 1-1 tie against the 17^th-ranked team in the country. It came a little more than two weeks after the Bulldogs played the Warriors in a non-conference match up in Decatur.

"It was a little bit of nerves after we didn't get the result we wanted the first time around," Gulf Coast coach Aaron Avila said. "As the girls played, they kinda realized we can play, we're doing some good things. Once they settled down, we started to control the tempo of the game. Then we obviously had some good chances."

Gulf Coast (2-3-2, 0-1-2 MACCC) got a point out of the encounter, and might have deserved more.

Alyssa Palisi (So., Diamondhead/Hancock) scored her team-leading sixth goal two minutes into the second half to give Gulf Coast the advantage. They also scored the opener in the 2-1 loss the first time around.

"She had a great goal for the first one," Avila said. "She was in the right place at the right time and she finished it. That's what strikers do. Then she had a couple good opportunities she wishes she could have back. As a player, she'll learn from that and be hungry the next time she's out there."

East Central equalized on a laser free kick in a 68^th minute, and neither team could score in the rest of regulation or the two 10-minute overtime periods.

ECCC is now 3-2-2 and still looking for its first conference win at 0-1-2 after opening the conference schedule with two straight top-10 foes.

Gulf Coast will play twice on the road next week, the first at Itawamba on Tuesday. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.

"We're playing better than we did last week and the week before, so we're steadily progressing," said Avila.

For more information on MGCCC's 11 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.