Vanderbilt’s Sarah Fuller had a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving weekend. Last Sunday she guided the Commodores’ women’s soccer team to a win in the Southeastern Conference tournament as its goalkeeper.
And then on Saturday she achieved something that wasn’t even on her radar a week ago. After a Covid-19 outbreak decimated the Vanderbilt football team’s kicking unit, Fuller was hastily seconded to the gridiron squad and became the first woman to play a down of football in one of the five major conferences.
Fuller, a senior, made history at the start of the second half by kicking off for Vanderbilt. Coach Derek Mason drew up a squib kick, a low-hanging special-teams maneuver similar to what soccer goalies use to put the ball back in play, to discourage Missouri from trying to make a long return.
“We tried to go with the most natural kicks in her arsenal,” said Mason after the game. “I thought she punched it exactly where she needed to punch it.”
Though Fuller practiced kicking field goals and extra points late in the week, she didn’t get a chance to score points for Vanderbilt on Saturday because the Commodores’ offense got no closer to Missouri’s end zone than the 32-yard line in their 41-0 loss.
