Soccer On to Sweet 16 With 7-2 Romp Past Arizona

Friday, November 21

College Station

7:00 PM

Texas A&M

20-2-2

Arizona

11-8-2

Arizona

Texas A&M

Nov 21, 2014 | Soccer

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Athletics

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M Aggies took a 5-0 halftime lead and rolled to a 7-2 win over the Arizona Wildcats in an NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship second round match at Ellis Field on Friday evening.

With the victory, the Aggies advanced to the Sweet 16 of the tournament for the third consecutive season and the 13th time overall.

In a rematch of a 2-2 draw played on September 5 at a neutral field in Tempe, Ariz., the Aggies snuffed out an early scoring chance by the Wildcats and then responded quickly with three goals within a five-minute span to take control of the match.

After a nifty pass broke her into the opening with the defense chasing in the 10th minute, Arizona's Alexandra Doller charged goalward for a one-on-one confrontation with Aggie netminder Jordan Day. As she approached the penalty box, Doller had a touch that was a bit too heavy, allowing Day to charge off her line. Day covered the ground quickly make a sliding save 15 yards out, taking the ball just a yard off Doller's foot.

Surviving the opening salvo, A&M opened up the flood gates in the 15th minute. Meghan Streight took a free kick from 35 yards out, sending it into Brinson right corner of the six-yard box. Brinson knocked the ball to the left, finding Annie Kunz who sent it to the back of the net with her right foot.

Three minutes later, Karlie Mueller set up the next goal with a throw-in from 30 yards. The wind carried her throw over the head of the defender marking Kelley Monogue, leaving the Aggie senior with no one between her and the woodwork but Arizona goalkeeper Gabby Kaufman. Monogue shot from 10 yards out to the left of the keeper for the 2-0 edge.

The cavalcade of goals continued in the 20th minute. This time Leigh Edwards shot from the left corner of the penalty box, catching the head of Monogue at the six-yard box for Monogue's second goal of the match and her fourth in the last two games.

Allie Bailey joined the goal parade in the 32nd minute. Shea Groom controlled the ball on the offensive edge of the center circle and weaved through the Arizona defense to the top of the penalty box arc. She sent the ball to the left where Bailey had lost her marker. Bailey launched a missile from the left corner of the penalty box that deflected off a Wildcats' defender and tucked into the near post.

The Aggies' lead ballooned to 5-0 with 2:19 left in the first half. It was Bailey scoring again. This time she dribbled down the left side of the pitch to the end line outside the penalty box. With no enticing target for a cross, Bailey dribbled back to the left corner of the box and unleashed a howitzer into the right side-netting.

Any thoughts of an Aggie letdown coming out of the intermission were put to rest early as Groom stripped the ball from a Wildcat defender and scored from 15 yards out less than two minutes into the second half for the for the 6-0 lead.

Arizona (11-8-2) broke the scoring seal in the 51st minute. Jaden DeGracie sent in a flip throw-in on the left touchline, finding the head of Doller to cut the A&M lead to 6-1.

The Maroon and White capped off their scoring in the 58th minute. Kelley Monogue sent a free kick into the penalty box from 30 yards out. She found Groom in an enviable positon, but the senior's shot hit the left post. The ball-hawking Brinson was in the six-yard box to clean up and give A&M a 7-1 advantage.

After A&M cleared much of its bench, the Wildcats cut the lead to 7-2 in the 65th minute. Gabi Stoian sent a free kick in from 30 yards out on the right. Kaitlyn Lopez got the first shot off in the six-yard box and Day made a save, but the carom came back to Hayley Estopare who sent it into the goal.

The win improved A&M's unbeaten string to 12 matches. The Maroon and White are 11-0-1 since suffering a 1-0 loss to Florida on October 3.

Texas A&M improved to 22-4-1 all-time in NCAA Championship matches Ellis Field, winning their seventh in a row and 13 of their last 14.

The Aggies' nine-player senior class set a school record with their 73rd win, topping the 2002 class that notched 72.

Day went the distance in goal for the Aggies, making six saves. Kaufman made eight saves for the Wildcats.

Texas A&M faces Notre Dame in a 1:30 pm match at Ellis Field on Sunday afternoon. Notre Dame defeated Texas on an 86th minute goal earlier in the day.

POSTMATCH QUOTES

Texas A&M

G Guerrieri, Head Coach
Opening statement...
“I was really pleased with the way the team prepared this week. It was a really good week of training, and you could see the end product for half the weekend come out so far. Tremendous offensive performance by a lot of people. We had a lot of people involved in all facets of the game. You could see our players operating and really working off of each other and really thinking and taking situations that were for them and using those opportunities.”

On competing against Arizona…
“They're a really difficult team to play against. They scored exactly the way we thought they would be most dangerous at: two restarts. We've not given up a goal on restarts in quite a while, so that's something we'll clean up a little bit moving forward. It's more a credit to how good Arizona is in those situations.”

Allie Bailey, Senior Forward
On the scoring in the first half…
“I think there's only been one game this whole season where we scored first and didn't win. It's always great to score early and score a lot in the first half to go in at half time up.”

Arizona

Tony Amato, Head Coach
On the match...
"We ran into a really good team tonight. They were firing on all cylinders and it felt like everything they shot in the first half went in. There are a lot of good players on that A&M team and I expect them to make a good run in this tournament. I thought we started well. We had a couple chances, didn't finish them, and once they got their goal they came after us. It was a long game."

On how A&M was able to take over the game...
"I think they just started the game with the pedal to the floor. They scored and the crowd got into it, and they just started flying. If soccer had timeouts, I would've called one there to let our girls regroup. They just grabbed the momentum at that point and it was just too hard to overcome.