Aggies Cruise to NCAA First Round Win vs. HBU, 5-0

Friday, November 14

College Station

7:00 PM

Texas A&M

19-2-2

Houston Baptist

10-7-5

Houston Baptist

Texas A&M

Nov 14, 2014 | Soccer

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Athletics

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M Aggies advanced past the first round of the NCAA Division I Championship for the 17th consecutive season as the Maroon and White rolled to a 5-0 win over the Houston Baptist Huskies on Friday evening at Ellis Field.

Kelley Monogue led a senior group that accounted for all 14 points in the contest, including five goals and four assists. Monogue notched two goals, increasing her career tally to 48. Bianca Brinson and Shea Groom each logged one goal and one assist. Allie Bailey notched a goal and Annie Kunz notched two assists.

Monogue broke the scoring seal 3:30 into the contest as Kunz slipped her a pass in the center of the pitch eight yards out and Monogue one-timed it to the left of the keeper for the 1-0 lead.

Texas A&M lead increased to 2-0 in the 11th minute as Brinson sent a pass to Monogue near the left corner of the penalty box and the senior unleashed a shot from 15 yards out, sending it into the right side-netting.

The Maroon and White tacked on a third goal in the 24th minute. Kunz had a shot snuffed out from six-yards out, but HBU goalkeeper Patty Walrath was unable to contain the ball and Bailey pounced on the carom, putting it home for the 3-0 lead.

The Aggies dominated the offensive numbers in the first half with a 16-2 edge in shots, 9-1 advantage in shots-on-goal and a 4-1 margin in corner kicks.

A&M's lead got huskier midway through the second half. The Aggies worked the ball around the attacking third with a string of passes that reached double-digits. Groom finally possessed the ball at the left corner of the six-yard box, beat a defender to the middle and poked a pass to Brinson who just needed a touch on the ball to score from four yards out, staking the Aggies to a 4-0 lead in the 56th minute.

The cavalcade of goals concluded in the 61st minute as Groom wrangled the ball from a defender at the top of the penalty box and charged goalward, scoring from eight yards out for the 5-0 lead.

A&M dictated the terms of play throughout the match with 34-3 edge in shots, including 19-1 in shots-on-goal. The corner kick chances also favored the Maroon and White, 10-2.

With the win, the Aggies improved to 19-2-2 and the Maroon and White are one win shy of their school record of 20 set in 2002. A&M's string of advancing to the second round reached 17 years, the fourth-longest active streak behind North Carolina (33), Virginia (21) and UCLA (18).

Houston Baptist, playing in its first-ever NCAA Division I Championship, finished the season with a 10-7-5 record.

The Aggies logged their fourth consecutive shutout with three goalkeepers seeing action. Jordan Day played the entire first half, making A&M's lone save of the match. Renée McDermott played the first 30 minutes of the second half and Taylor Saucier saw her first career action with 15 scoreless minutes to end the match.

Walrath went the distance in goal for HBU, making 14 saves on the evening.

The Aggies improved to 21-0-5 against in-state rivals since 2008.

Texas A&M advances to the second round where they will host Arizona in a rematch of a 2-2 draw in September. The match will be played on Friday, Nov. 21 at Ellis Field.

POST-MATCH QUOTES

TEXAS A&M

G Guerrieri, Head Coach
On the game…
“I thought we did a good job of moving the ball and were able to come away with the win. HBU came in and played hard. You have to tip your hat off to them. They battled and we had to work for what we got. I thought some of the goals we had were really good goals. Now we look forward to playing Arizona at home next Friday, a familiar face.”

Annie Kunz, Senior Forward
On A&M's ability to control possession…
“It's something that we worked on in practice, keeping possession of the ball in the box. We were able to take that and translate it into some success tonight.”

Kelley Monogue, Senior Midfielder
On her two goal performance…
“I give a lot of credit to my teammates, they were able to get me the ball in space. I knew that we needed a quick start, so that's what I was hoping to do.”

HOUSTON BAPTIST

Misty Jones, Head Coach
On the match...
“For us, unfortunately, just giving up a couple of early goals had us chasing the game right away. We knew if we got into a situation where we were chasing the game, we were probably going to have a difficult time. A&M is No. 1 seed for a reason and they are a fantastic team. I am proud of my girls. It was our first time here so I think we did a good job. It was a little bit of a culture shock maybe for us to begin with, with the different atmosphere than we are used to playing in. The game just kind of got away from us. We are young and we will be back.”

On trying to play offensive-minded soccer...
“It took us probably midway through the season, before we started conference, to really find our rhythm with this team, and once we found it it's just something we don't deviate from. We play our game regardless of the opponent that we play. Unfortunately today in the first half we could not find our rhythm. Our game plan was to go at them from the beginning. We knew that we could not just sit back and wait, so that was our plan. What we had talked about all week was that we would need to get the ball and go at them, dribble at them, try to connect passes.”

Lindsay Matlock, Senior Defender
On if there was defensive miscommunication on A&M's first two goals...
“I don't know if it was a miscommunication. They are really fast they are very skilled on the ball, and I guess you could say it was a miscommunication at times but we have worked on this all season. We talked about it in practice. I think it was a disconnect of our midfield and our back line, so I feel it was a domino effect before it even got to the eighteen.”