Sept. 30, 2010
Complete Release in PDF Format 
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -
The No. 10 Texas A&M soccer team travels to Kansas on Friday for a 5 p.m. kickoff in its second straight Big 12 Conference road match.
The Aggies (8-3, 1-1 Big 12) are coming off of a 1-1 opening weekend in league play. They fell to Colorado, 2-1, in overtime before bouncing back with a 2-1 win at Nebraska to break the Huskers' 18-game home winning streak.
The Jayhawks (4-6, 0-2 Big 12) host their conference home opener against A&M after dropping a pair of Big 12 games at Missouri and Iowa State last weekend.
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Gametracker and free live audio will be available for the match this weekend on AggieAthletics.com.
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ALL ABOUT A&M
The Aggies are ranked 10th by the NSCAA and Soccer Times and started the conference portion of their season at 1-1 after playing what was arguably the toughest non-conference schedule in the nation. Two of A&M's three losses have come at the hands of top-ranked programs in No. 1 North Carolina and No. 3 Portland. Texas A&M averages the most shots (21.4) and the most corner kicks (5.8) in the Big 12. Senior Alyssa Mautz leads the team with eight goals, including three game-winners and 50 shots. Junior Bri Young adds a conference-best five assists. Junior Merritt Mathias (6 G, 15 pts), senior Rachel Shipley (12 pts) and senior Whitney Hooper (10 pts) and are also strong offensive threats. Senior goalkeeper Kristin Arnold suffered a separated shoulder at Portland and senior Kelly Dyer stepped in nicely recording a 1.05 goals against average and a .846 save percentage.
SCOUTING KANSAS
Kansas is 2-1 at home this season and hosts A&M for its Big 12 home opener. The team has lost three of its last four matches, including getting beaten by Missouri, 4-1, and Iowa State, 2-0. KU has been outscored by its opponents, 16-10 and averages just 12.3 shots per game, compared to 17.2 by its opposition. Four Kansas players have scored two goals each, while Kortney Clifton and Carolina Kastor add an assist for a team-leading five points. Whitney Berry is tops on the squad with three assists and adds a goal for five points as well. Goalkeeper Kat Liebetrau has seen every minute between the posts and records a 1.57 goals against average and a .802 save percentage. Head coach Mark Francis is in his 12th year and is the winningest coach in Kansas soccer history with a 129-86-17 overall record.
THE SERIES
Texas A&M leads the all-time series, 11-3-1, and last won 4-3 in 2009 at the Aggie Soccer Stadium. Mautz headed in her first goal of the season to put A&M up 4-2 in the 64th minute. A determined Kansas side narrowed the margin to one goal in the 88th minute, but could not overcome four A&M scores. Katie Hamilton ('16), Shipley (`27) and Young ('52) also scored for the Aggies. Two of A&M's losses against the Jayhawks came in 2008 as Kansas won 1-0 in the regular season with a goal in the 29th minute from Shannon McCabe on an attempted cross. At the Big 12 Championship, the Jayhawks downed the Aggies, 4-2, and eliminated them from the tournament. Since 2003, the two teams are even at 4-3-1, with five matches being one-goal games.
AGGIES TOP 10 IN THE POLLS
At No. 10 the Aggies have been a constant in the top 10 all season, starting the year ranked eighth and moving up as high as fifth. The Aggies entered the national polls during the 1995 season and have appeared in the top 25 every week since for the past 16 seasons!
GOALS GALORE
The Aggies have scored 26 goals so far this season, which are the most A&M has scored in its first nine games since 2001 when it totaled the same figure. Mautz is having a career season, with seven goals and 15 points, which is already higher than her previous two season totals as an Aggie.
STARTING LINEUPS
With a talented and deep roster, Texas A&M has used 10 different starting lineups in its first 11 games. Fifteen different players have started at least one game this season and only three players have started all 11 matches: Mautz, Mathias and Balaguer.
AGGIES IN THE BIG 12
Texas A&M leads the Big 12 in shots (235), shots per game (21.36), assists (28), assists per game (2.55) and corners (64), and is second-best in goals (29), goals per game (2.64) and points (86). Mautz leads the conference in shots (50) and shots per game (4.55) and Young is tops with five assists. A pair of Aggies is ranked third including Mathias in shots (45) and shots per game (4.09) and Mautz in goals (8) and goals per game (0.73). Mautz is also fourth-best with 17 points and 1.55 points per game while Shipley and Hooper are fourth with four assists each.
AGGIES IN THE NCAA RANKINGS
In addition to the 17th-best scoring offense in the nation, Texas A&M has the 42nd-best win-lost-tied percentage. Individually, Mautz ranks 17th with eight goals and 37th with 0.727 goals per game.
LAST TIME OUT
After dropping a 2-1 overtime decision to Colorado last Friday, Young scored the game-winning goal in the 71st minute to lift the Aggies to a 2-1 victory over Nebraska on Sunday. Young's third goal of the season came in the 71st minute off of a free kick from 45 yards. Nebraska had previously not lost a match at home since Oct. 17, 2008.
UP NEXT
Without a match on Sunday, Texas A&M returns home next weekend for matches against Baylor and Texas Tech at the Aggie Soccer Stadium. Kickoff with the Bears is set for 7:30 p.m. and Sunday's match against the Red Raiders is set for 1:30 p.m.
TOP ATTENDANCE FIGURES
More than 5,500 fans were in attendance on Friday against Tech, giving the Aggies one of the top average attendance marks in the nation to start the season. Here's the list Portland (3,411), Texas A&M (2,663), BYU (2,483), North Carolina (2,179) and South Carolina (1,777).
PICKED TO WIN THE BIG 12
Texas A&M notched the top spot in the 2010 Big 12 Soccer Preseason Poll, after receiving eight of the 10 first-place votes and tallying 95 points. With 73 points, Nebraska was chosen second, but only six points separate the Huskers from third-place Missouri (69), fourth-place Oklahoma State (68) and fifth-place Texas (67). The remainder of the poll consists of Texas Tech (61), Colorado (54), Kansas (45), Baylor (29), Oklahoma (28) and Iowa State (16).
THREE ON PRESEASON ALL-BIG 12 TEAM
Shipley, Hooper and Young earned spots on the Preseason All-Big 12 Team, making Texas A&M one of just two teams in the conference with three players honored. This trio of Aggies finished one, two and three in most points for A&M last season.
THE AGGIE SOCCER HOUR
New this year, the Aggie Soccer Hour, Texas A&M soccer's weekly radio talk show sponsored by Monograms & More, is broadcast live from CiCi's Pizza on Texas Ave. in College Station every Tuesday from 6-7 p.m. Come and be a part of the show each week, listen locally on KZNE 1150 AM or worldwide on Aggies All-Access and RadioAggieland.com.
THE AGGIE SOCCER SHOW
Each week, catch everything related to Texas A&M soccer with Will Johnson and head coach G Guerrieri on the Aggie Soccer Show. The show is available free each Tuesday on Aggies All-Access.
AGGIE SOCCER ON TV
The Aggie soccer team will be on the tube for its Oct. 17 match at Missouri. The game will be broadcast nationwide on ESPNU. In addition, the finals of the Big 12 Championship will be broadcast live on FSN.