No. 17 Aggies Fall to Lady Vols on PK

Sunday, August 28

Knoxville, Tenn.

10:30 AM

Texas A&M

1-3-0

Tennessee

3-1-0

Texas A&M

Tennessee Lady Vols

Aug 28, 2011 | Soccer

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Athletics

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The 17th-ranked Texas A&M soccer team (1-3-0) fell, 1-0, to Tennessee (3-1-0) Sunday in the final day of the Lady Vols Classic at Regal Stadium. Despite controlling ball possession for the majority of the match, and outshooting the Lady Volunteers, 16-8, the Aggies came away with a hard fought loss.

A&M pinned Tennessee back into the Vol's defensive third of the field from the game's opening moments of play and most of the first half, creating several golden opportunities to take an early lead.

In the first half, freshman Kelley Monogue hit two shots off of the woodwork for A&M. In the game's 33rd minute she turned with the ball in front of the Tennessee defense and hit the crossbar with a right-footed blast from 25 yards. Less than forty seconds later Monogue received an Aggie pass through a gap in the Tennessee defense, where she dribbled into the penalty area one-on-one against the Lady Vol goalkeeper. Monogue shimmied left, sending the keeper the wrong way, and pushed a shot to the opposite corner only for the ball to strike the post and bounce away.

In the 35th minute, Tennessee's Iyana Moore received a long clearing pass and dribbled into the left side of the Aggies' 18 yard box, where she drove a shot toward the goal. Freshman goalkeeper Jordan Day dove to block the shot but got tangled with Moore on the ground while scrambling for the loose ball. The referee blew his whistle and pointed to the penalty spot.

UT's Caroline Brown took the penalty kick. Day got her hands on the shot but couldn't keep it from trickling over the goal line for a 1-0 Tennessee lead.

One minute later, Monogue again spearheaded an Aggie attack by slipping a clever diagonal pass into the path of charging freshman forward Bianca Brinson. Brinson took a one-touch shot which was saved at point-blank range by Tennessee goalkeeper Julie Eckel.

Later in the half, Brinson again got in behind the left corner of the Tennessee defense and smashed a shot at the goal, only to see it bounce off the near post and out of bounds for a UT goal kick.

Tennessee made it to halftime with a 1-0 lead, but, the second half started much like the first had finished. Freshman Meghan Streight recorded a shot on goal from the kickoff and the Aggies pushed forward to try and find the equalizing goal.

Freshman Annie Kunz subbed into the match just a few minutes into the second period and made an immediate impact on the front line. In the 61st minute, the forward side-volleyed a laser of a shot which seemed destined to score, but was cleared off the goal line by a Vol defender. Just five minutes later, she got on the end of another ball in the Tennessee penalty area, but pushed her shot just wide right of the goal.

Minutes later, senior Merritt Mathias sent a corner kick into the box toward Streight, who rose high and headed a hard shot toward goal, forcing another team save by the Lady Vols on the goal line.

The Aggies continued to throw more forces into attack and the match got physical as Tennessee fought to hang on. Each team received at least two yellow cards and both teams were whistled for 15 fouls each.

As the game moved into its final ten minutes, Mathias and the Aggies battled again and again for a tying score. The senior striker bent a shot from 30 yards on goal in the 81st minute, but Engel held the save while a number of Aggies crashed into the goal area hoping to see her to bobble the ball.

Mathias fired another shot on goal two minutes later, but Eckel was there again, diving to her left to punch it over the line for another Aggie corner kick. In the 85th minute the Lady Vols were able to clear the ball from their end of the field and kill off the clock with a series of throw-ins and balls played into the far corner of the field.

For the Aggies the loss, drops them to 1-3-0 in the young season, and marks just the 3rd time in the program's 19 year history that A&M has lost 3 consecutive matches. Last Sunday the Aggies lost to No. 14 UC-Irvine, 0-1, despite outshooting the Anteaters 21-to-11. This Friday, A&M controlled most of the match and outshot No. 7 Florida 21-to-12, before giving up a game-losing goal with just 15 seconds remaining in the match, to fall 2-3.

"We were again unfortunate to not get a result today," head coach G Guerrieri said. "You have to commend Tennessee for finding a way to score and then for their fight and resilience in keeping us off the scoreboard. We created a number of great chances to score, but didn't have the finishing touch, which is really frustrating for our players, coaches, and fans.

"It has been a long time since I remember losing 3 in a row. The last time it happened (2006) we lost to three highly ranked teams, and frankly deserved to soundly lose two of those three games and were unfortunate in the third. That '06 team rebounded and went onto win the Big 12 title and nearly advance to the NCAA College Cup. This current Aggie team has been in control of the majority of play in these three one-goal losses. We continue to play well in many facets of the game and are learning some hard lessons right now. So, I'm confident we will be ready to bounce back when we play in front of the 12th Man this coming Friday night at Ellis Field."

The Aggies return home Friday for a 6:30 p.m. match vs. Dartmouth on Fish Camp Night at Ellis Field. The team's final match of the Labor Day Weekend will be on Monday, Sept. 5, against McNeese State at 1:30 p.m. For more information on Texas A&M soccer, log on to AggieAthletics.com.