Texas A&M
Northwestern State
Aggies Dominate Lady Demons in NCAA First Round
Nov 11, 2005 | Soccer
November 11, 2005
Four goals in the first half and three in the second, each scored by a different Aggie, secured the 9th-ranked Texas A&M soccer team?™s (17-3-2) advancement to the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday night. The Aggies rolled past Northwestern State (15-6-1), 7-0, in front of 1982 fans at the Aggie Soccer Stadium.
?I was real happy [with the outcome]. I thought we came in to tonight wanting to be sharp,? commented A&M head coach G Guerrieri. ?We wanted to take care of the things we needed to take care of. We had heard, we hadn?™t seen any film on NSU, but we had heard that they were by far the most athletic team coming out of the Southland Conference. They were. I think Jimmy [Coach Mitchell] has done a really good job of upgrading the athleticism just in the three years since we last played them here.?
All four of the Aggies?™ goals in the first half came off crosses from either the upper or lower left wing into the lower right end of the box. The first goal was scored by Amy Berend in 16th minute off passes from Emily Peterson and Laura Probst.
A minute later Peterson recorded her second assist of the night on a pass into Ashlee Pistorius who netted her team leading 19th goal of the season. Laura Probst followed suit with just under 14 minutes to play in the half on a cross from Pistorius, and 20 seconds later, Suzzette Devloo added her fourth goal of 2005, with Probst recording the assist.
In the first 45 minutes of play, the Aggie defense only allowed four shots while A&M?™s offense managed to fire-off 20. Aggie goalkeeper Kati Jo Spisak was only required to make one save in the combined shutout with Julie Spearink.
The three goals in the second half were scored in three very different ways. In the 69th minute, Carrie Berend fired a shot that was deflected by the Lady Demon goalkeeper, Melissa Garey rebounded the ball, flicking it into the back of the net for her 18th goal of the season. Five minutes later, Marissa Sarkesian dribbled a pass from Carrie to the top of the box and sent a straight shot through the NSU defenders, and a mere 30 seconds after that Laura Grace Robinson headed in the Aggie?™s seventh goal of the night off a cross from Emily DeWoody.
The match was truly a team effort as 11 different A&M players recorded points in the game. The team?™s 42 shots on the night was seven shy of tying an Aggie game record of 49 shots set in 1993 against Oral Roberts on October 2 and then again on October 17 against Hardin-Simmons.
?We really had to play well to open up the lead that we were able to get,? added Guerrieri. ?We scored some good goals. I thought that our attack was pretty free falling a lot of times. We had a lot of goals on passes of at least four, five, or six passes in the buildup to get it in. That?™s fun to watch.?
With two assists on the night and a great job in the Aggie backfield, Peterson was named State Farm Player of the Game.
Earlier in the afternoon, Southern Methodist University (15-4-2) defeated the University of North Texas (16-4-2), 3-0.
The Aggies and Mustangs will meet Sunday at 2:00 p.m. at the Aggie Soccer Stadium in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with an opportunity of heading to the ?Sweet 16? at stake. A&M owns the all-time series against SMU, 10-4-1, having defeated them in penalty kicks in 2003.
Those unable to attend the Aggie matches will be able to follow the action through FREE live video and audio. Live stats will be available at www.AggieAthletics.com for all games.
For anyone inside the Aggie Soccer Stadium, you can listen to live coverage on 89.9 FM.
Texas A&M will also be serving as the host institution for the 2005 Women?™s College Cup, Dec. 2 and 4. For a fan guide and ticket information, go to www.AggieAthletics.com.
