University of Mississippi Women's Soccer

Thompson helped guide the Rebels to their first-ever NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in program history in 2015. Under the assistance of Thompson, Ole Miss surged to a national ranking of No. 12 midway through the year, its highest rank in school history. The Rebels also closed the book on the season as the No. 16 team in the nation in the postseason poll, the best finish in the history of the program. Thompsons teachings were apparent in 2015 as the Rebels pitched nine shutouts, including two versus top-10 teams in No. 10 Auburn and No. 10 South Carolina. Marnie Merritt, who made her collegiate debut in the 2015 campaign, made it a good one under Thompsons direction. Thompsons instructions paid off as Merritt totaled seven individual shutouts, fourth-most in a single season in school history. She tallied 93 saves, which were also the fourth-most in any Rebel season, and already ranks in the top-10 in career saves following one season of action. The Rebel defense held opponents to a 1.07 goals allowed average, as Merritts 1.09 mark ranks top-five on the career charts. The 2013 season saw the Rebel defense help Ole Miss to a record-setting 16 wins that included 10 shutout victories behind the play of junior goalkeeper Kelly McCormick. The keeper became the winningest goalkeeper in program history, 34 victories for her career under the tutelage of Thompson.  In the 2012 season, McCormick helped the Rebels post eight shutout victories, including a stretch of four-consecutive shutouts as Ole Miss rolled to an 8-0 start to set the best start to a season in program history. In that stretch of shutouts, the McCormick and the Rebels played 483 minutes of shutout soccer, setting a new school record. McCormick twice won SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors, helping the Rebels advance to the SEC Tournament for the 14th time in school history and the quarterfinals of the 2013 SEC Tournament with a shutout win over LSU in the opening round of the annual event. In 2011, goalkeepers Alley Ronaldi and McCormick recorded a combined seven shutouts as the team finished the year 8-10-1 overall (4-7 SEC). Ronaldi was named SEC Defensive Player of the Week on August 29. Ole Miss opened the year holding its opponents scoreless for the first 455 minutes of the season, marking the longest scoreless streak in program history.  During 2010, Thompson helped Ole Miss to a 7-9-4 overall record and a 3-5-3 record in SEC play. His goalkeepers, Sarah Story and Alley Ronaldi, recorded a combined six shutouts on the year. In addition, Story set program records for saves in a game (17) and in a season (109). Thompson brings high-level experience in training goalkeepers to the Rebel program. Following a two-year hiatus from college coaching for family reasons, he came back to the SEC, where he was an assistant at Georgia from 2005-08. While in Athens, he helped lead the Bulldogs to their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2003 and just their second appearance in the SEC Tournament championship game. Georgia went 40-19-4 during his three seasons, and he helped develop goalkeeper Michelle Betos into an SEC All-Freshman pick who would go on to rank among the all-time school and conference leaders in shutouts and saves. Thompson was an assistant at Florida State for two seasons, where he helped the Seminoles reach back-to-back NCAA Tournaments, including the 2003 College Cup Semifinals. He trained goalkeeper Joy McKenzie to All-ACC and All-Region status, while she broke several school records along the way. A native of Grimbsy, England, his extensive experience as a goalkeeper coach on the professional and collegiate levels also includes the WUSA's New York Power (2002-03), Adelphi University men (2001-02), the A-League's Long Island Rough Riders (1998-01) and Lock Haven University men and women (1995-98). He has also been a member of the ODP Region III coaching staff since 2003. Thompson holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Lock Haven University (Pa.), where he was a three-time all-conference and two-time all-region player in soccer. He is married to the former April Murphy of Tulsa, Okla., and the couple has a son, Michael. Monday, November 14, 2016 - Football Freeze said that it was good meeting with the team yesterday. A lot of good things happened with a lot of improvement in a lot of areas. To go on the road to Kyle Field, there was a lot of... Monday, November 7, 2016 - Football p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica; min-height: 14.0px} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica} Freeze said the team is excited to win a game. It was a tough one. They spent a lot... Saturday, November 5, 2016 - Football By Alex Sims, Ole Miss AthleticsThe Ole Miss Rebels entered Saturday's meeting with Georgia Southern already shorthanded--then defensive captain John Youngblood went down. Then quarterback Chad Kelly went down. And suddenly, Ole Miss found itself fighting off a feisty underdog... Monday, October 31, 2016 - Football After meeting yesterday and watching the film, our kids competed against one of the hottest football teams in the country. They needed a couple more plays. Freeze has zero frustration over effort, but he does over having a recurring problem... Saturday, October 29, 2016 - Football For most of the game on Saturday, Auburn's defense had no answer for Ole Miss' signal caller. Even his incompletions were on target. He threw for a school-record 465 yards while adding 40 yards on the ground to eclipse... Monday, October 24, 2016 - Football It was not the outcome Ole Miss wanted on Saturday night. Life doesn't get any easier in the SEC West. Auburn is an outstanding football team and maybe the best defensive they've seen this year. Their rushing game is... Thursday, October 20, 2016 - Football Somehow, the college football regular season is already halfway in the books. With that, many publications released their midseason All-America lists. There's a common theme to each of them at the TE position. Evan Engram.Engram was selected as the... Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - Football Special Olympics MS - Students at the University of Mississippi are partnering with Special Olympics Mississippi athletes in the 2016 season of SO College unified flag football, which will culminate in the Unified Egg Bowl, a unified sports flag... Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - Football Pro Football Focus grades players on a 1-100 scale, and Ole Miss' Jordan Sims was graded out by PFF as having the best performance of any guard in the SEC in week seven. His grade of 81.0 against the... Monday, October 17, 2016 - Football There's another SEC road game this week. This one means a lot to our people. They'll let their players know about the history of the matchup between Ole Miss and LSU. The Arkansas game was frustrating. Ole Miss has... Monday, October 17, 2016 - Football There's another SEC road game this week. This one means a lot to our people. They'll let their players know about the history of the matchup between Ole Miss and LSU. The Arkansas game was frustrating. Ole Miss has... Monday, October 10, 2016 - Baseball Rebel greats Jake Gibbs and Joe Gibbon will take part in a World Series viewing party hosted by the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame on the opening night of the Fall Classic.  Gibbs and Gibbon will be joined by... Monday, October 10, 2016 - Football Hugh Freeze said that the team enjoyed the off-week. There was a lot of work to be done though with things like recruiting while also improving and getting the team healthy. Ole Miss continues to be in the hunt... Thursday, October 6, 2016 - Thursday, October 6, 2016 - Ole Miss faced a difficult opening month of the season, but there's no doubt about the exposure the Rebels received during the opening month of the season. Two of the four most watched games to this point in the...