Texas A&M
Texas
Soccer's Season Ends in NCAA Second Round
Nov 17, 2007 | Soccer
November 17, 2007
The second-ranked Texas A&M soccer team saw its season come to a close in round two of the NCAA Tournament after a disappointing 3-2 loss to the 10th-ranked Texas Longhorns on a rainy Saturday evening at the Aggie Soccer Stadium.
?The game came down to, with weather conditions and everything else, a game of mistakes. And we made more mistakes than they did,? A&M head coach G Guerrieri said." "I'm proud of my ladies. I think they've represented this university well.?
After nearly an hour of weather delays the game went underway with the Aggies looking to be in control for much off the first half. A&M dominated every offensive category posting 10 shots to Texas?™ four. The score was even in A&M?™s favor 1-0 at the half thanks to a misclear by a UT defender that resulted in an ?own goal? for the Aggies.
The second 45 minutes started with freshman Rachel Shipley nearly putting the Aggies up 2-0 as the midfielder launched a shot that fell into the arms Texas keeper Dianna Pfenninger, the save was her fourth of the night.
Seconds after Shipley?™s shot, Texas?™ Erica Campanelli netted the equalizer in the 54th minute, her first career goal as a Longhorn. Campanelli was positioned inside the keeper box and drove a header past A&M?™s Kristin Arnold off a Courtney Gaines corner kick.
Texas would score twice more on the night. In the 72nd minute Caitlin Kennedy sent a cross from the close right wing towards the left post that caromed straight back into the left side netting for her third goal of the season. Six minutes later Texas sealed its trip to the NCAA Third Round as Kennedy connected with Kelsey Carpenter inside the Aggie penalty area. Carpenter?™s goal tied her for the team-lead (10) with freshman Niki Arlitt.
"(The weather) made this a completely different game. But both teams had to play in it. It's part of what the game is. You've got to be able to play in whatever is out there,? Guerrieri noted. ?It did have a major effect, especially in the second half. In the second half, with the rain and the wind in our face, we didn't do well in the first 15 minutes. That's when they got back in the game. A couple mistakes allowed them to take the lead again."
A&M senior Sara Albrecht refused to go quietly into the night as the defender launched, what she thought was a cross into UT?™s keeper box in the 83rd minute, but the ball proved too much for Pfenninger to handle as the keeper punched the ball into the back of the net rather than over the crossbar, bringing the Aggies back within one goal of tying the game.
In the final six minutes, A&M managed a flurry of shots forcing Pfenninger to make two saves off the line to keep the game from going into overtime, including a shot by Allison Martino following a deflected corner kick. The corner was cleared away by a UT defender back towards Martino where the senior repositioned herself for another shot.
At the end of regulation, A&M had managed 23 shots to Texas?™ 13 and posted eight corners to UT?™s six. Both Arnold and Pfenninger registered seven saves on the night.
The Aggies ended the 2007 with an overall record of 18-4-2 after clinching their fourth consecutive Big 12 regular season title.
"(Texas) was very good in the first 15 minutes of the second half,? Guerrieri ended. ?It really put us on our heels a bit. It took us a bit out of our game. It's one of those games where you're dying to have one timeout just to get our heads back. It can be such a big momentum swing."
The win was Texas?™ first in eight trips to College Station and moves the Longhorns?™ season record to 16-3-5. UT will face the winner of the LSU/Florida State second round match that will be played Saturday at noon.
Texas A&M Head Coach G Guerrieri
"I thought in the first half we were a little too impatient to serve the ball and it allowed them to keep their numbers behind. The time when we were able to serve our entry pass from a little bit closer, a goal resulted. Being able to have people face their own goal and defend you is a difficult situation and we were able to put them in it but not enough times. The game came down to, with weather conditions and everything else, a game of mistakes. We made more mistakes than they did."
On how the rain played a factor in the game...
"It's a completely different game. But both teams had to play in it. It's part of what the game is. You've got to be able to play in whatever is out there. It did have a major effect, especially in the second half. In the second half, with the rain and the wind in our face, we didn't do well in the first 15 minutes of the half. That's when they got back in the game. A couple mistakes allowed them to take the lead again."
"They were very good in the first 15 minutes of the second half. It really puts us on our heels a bit. It took us a little bit out of our game. It's one of those games where you're dying to have one timeout just to get our heads back. It can be such a big momentum swing."
"I'm proud of my ladies. I think they've represented this university well. Speaking of the senior class, the wheels are not going to fall off with the graduation of this class."
Senior Ashlee Pistorius
"We had a couple of opportunities we could have scored on, we just didn't finish them. We didn't come out and do our job."
Senior Kelsey Carpenter
"It's always a positive to win a road game. We've never won on the road in College Station in my career so it feels great. We know that this environment is tough to play in but none of the fans or the environment can affect what goes on between the lines. That's what we were focused on tonight."
Freshman Erica Campanelli
"Someone had to score, we needed to come back. I was just glad I could do it. It felt great. If I?™m going to score, now?™s a great time to score a goal, so it?™s really exciting.?
Junior Dianna Pfenninger
On the own goal?....
?Their forward played just one across and I started stepping because I thought it was going by and Kasey just got her toe on it. Things happen, it?™s soccer. There?™s something different every game. It?™s just unlucky that it had to happen that way and unfortunate on our part that the ball bounced the right way for them.?
Texas Head Coach Chris Petrucelli
?The response of our team at halftime was probably the most important part of the game for us. I felt we laid down a little in the first half. We sat deep and didn?™t get numbers forward and they had a lot of play in the first half. They had the ball a lot; they served a lot of balls into the box. But Dianna got onto a lot of those balls, so I don?™t know that it was that dangerous but they certainly had territory. In the second half, we decided to go to three forwards instead of two. We were down a goal, we needed to come back and try to do something offensively. We were really anemic offensively in the first half, so we were able to get some pressure on and fortunately get a couple of goals and get ahead. If we get a lead we are tough to beat.?
