Vanderbilt football needs a hand with kicking, and it turned to the Commodores women’s soccer team for help. Specifically, the help of senior goalkeeper Sarah Fuller, who plans to dress for Vanderbilt’s road game against Missouri on Saturday.
Only a few days ago, the Wylie, Texas native finished her 2020 soccer season before she received a call from her team’s associate head coach, Ken Masuhr, asking about her experience kicking a football and if she could stick around to offer an assist to the football team, VUCommodores.com reported.
Fuller’s soccer season ended last Sunday, and the next thing she knew, she was with the football team and practicing her kicking at the uprights.
“I made the first one and I kept making them,” she told VUCommodores.com. “It sounds really good to me. It’s different than a soccer ball, but it felt good.”
History in the making. #PlayLikeAGirl | #AnchorDown pic.twitter.com/ZnlI1DLbYB
— Vanderbilt Football (@VandyFootball) November 27, 2020
At the bottom of the SEC East standings, Vanderbilt is still searching for its first win of the season and enters the Missouri game with a 0-7 record and only two games left on its schedule currently. And it needs some kicking help with many of the Commodores specialists quarantining because of COVID-19 protocols.
So far this season, Vanderbilt has played two kickers. Juniors Wes Farley and Pierson Cooke are perfect this season with extra points. But Cooke is the only one to attempt a field goal, and he’s just 3-for-7 so far.
Maybe it’s Fuller’s turn to try, and football coach Derek Mason said this week that “she’s an option for us.”
Here are a few things to know about the soccer-turned-football player before she suits up and possibly plays Saturday against Missouri.