COLUMBIA, Mo. — Sarah Fuller was play­ing around with a team­mate a cou­ple months ago when she kicked a soc­cer ball through the uprights from 45 yards away. She joked about being able to kick a foot­ball with team­mates dur­ing the South­east­ern Con­fer­ence soc­cer tournament.

On Sat­ur­day, she made history.

Fuller became the first woman to par­tic­i­pate in a Pow­er Five con­fer­ence foot­ball game when she kicked off for Van­der­bilt to start the sec­ond half at Mis­souri, a moment that may take some time to soak in for her.

“I just think it’s incred­i­ble that I am able to do this, and all I want to do is be a good influ­ence to the young girls out there because there were times like I strug­gled in sports,” Fuller said. “But I am so thank­ful I stuck with it, and it’s giv­en me so many oppor­tu­ni­ties. I’ve met so many amaz­ing peo­ple through sports, and I just want to say like lit­er­al­ly you can do any­thing you set your mind to.”

Fuller kicked with a hold­er rather than using a tee in a designed squib kick, and the senior sent a low kick to the 35-yard line where it was pounced on by Missouri’s Mason Pack. Fuller didn’t get any oth­er oppor­tu­ni­ties in Vanderbilt’s 41–0 loss to Missouri.

Coach Derek Mason made clear that Fuller kicked for the Com­modores due to need, not for his­to­ry or pub­lic­i­ty. COVID-19 pro­to­cols and restric­tions left Mason with very few options, prompt­ing him to reach out to the soc­cer team for help.

Fuller, a 6‑foot‑2 goal­keep­er, decid­ed she was up for the challenge.

“I’m not about mak­ing state­ments,” Mason said. “This was out of neces­si­ty. You look at our week. Our stu­dents had gone home. The abil­i­ty to have access to stu­dents and try­outs was almost nil in terms of like what’s avail­able. … That just hap­pened to be the most viable option.”

After Fuller’s kick, she went straight to the side­line, where she high-fived some of her new team­mates and swapped some elbow bumps. Fuller’s par­ents watched and cheered from the stands along with her boyfriend and best friend.

Fuller prac­ticed with the Com­modores this week after help­ing the Com­modores win the SEC Tour­na­ment last week­end. Fuller said her longest field goal in prac­tice was 38 yards.

She wore “Play Like A Girl” on the back of her hel­met. The senior will get to keep the No. 32 jer­sey she wore Sat­ur­day, the same as her num­ber when play­ing soccer.

Fuller even gave a half­time pep talk, which she usu­al­ly left to her soc­cer team­mates, telling her new team­mates that Vandy won the SEC soc­cer tour­na­ment title by cheer­ing for each oth­er whether on the field or the sideline.

“We had a dif­fer­ent mind­set com­ing out the sec­ond half,” quar­ter­back Mike Wright said.

After her kick­off, reac­tion poured in on social media. Fuller was the No. 2 trend­ing top­ic on Twit­ter, fol­lowed by Vandy. Her soc­cer team wrote on Twit­ter: “Glass. Everywhere.”

As in glass ceiling.

Pat McAfee, a for­mer NFL punter, reviewed Fuller’s squib kick, not­ing the ball didn’t go out of bounds and there was no chance of a return, set­ting up the defense.

“Con­grats to (at)SarahFuller_27 for being THE FIRST EVER WOMAN TO KICKOFF A POWER 5 GAME,” McAfee wrote. “Incred­i­bly rare to be the ‘1st ever per­son to do some­thing’ these days..this is real­ly cool.”

No woman had appeared in an SEC foot­ball game or for any Pow­er Five team. Liz Heas­t­on became the first woman to score with two extra points for Willamette in NAIA on Oct. 18, 1997.

Katie Hni­da was the first woman to score at the Foot­ball Bowl Sub­di­vi­sion lev­el with two extra points for New Mex­i­co on Aug. 30, 2003.

April Goss was the sec­ond, with an extra point for Kent State in 2015. Tonya But­ler was the first woman to kick a field goal in an NCAA game for Divi­sion II West Alaba­ma on Sept. 13, 2003. New Mex­i­co con­grat­u­lat­ed Fuller on Twit­ter for join­ing Hni­da and Goss for kick­ing in an FBS game.

“Wel­come to the club, (at)April_Goss and I are wait­ing with snacks!” Hni­da wrote on Twit­ter on Friday.

Mis­souri coach Eli Drinkwitz vis­it­ed with Fuller before kick­off and repeat­ed a mes­sage that Fuller has heard a lot in recent days. The father of four daugh­ters told Fuller it was incred­i­ble they watched her make history.

“I’ve had girl dads come up to me and they’re like, ‘You’re inspir­ing my lit­tle girls, and I want them to know that they can do any­thing and you’re prov­ing that point.’ And I think that has been the coolest thing,” Fuller said.

Fuller also made clear she’d be up for con­tin­u­ing to help the foot­ball team if need­ed. She believes she can refine her tim­ing and tech­nique with more practice.

Van­der­bilt (0–8) vis­its No. 13 Geor­gia next week.

“If she wants to kick and she’s avail­able, we’d love to have her,” Mason said.