Aggies Earn Road Win at Kentucky, 1-0

Friday, October 16

Lexington, Ky.

6:30 PM

Texas A&M

12-4-0, 5-3-0SEC

Kentucky

9-4-3, 3-3-2SEC

Texas A&M

Kentucky

Photo by: Texas A&M Athletics

Oct 16, 2015 | Soccer

Box Score

LEXINGTON, Kentucky – The No. 22 Texas A&M Aggies turned a first-half goal by Ally Watt and a strong performance by a stout defense into a 1-0 win against the Kentucky Wildcats at the Bell Soccer Complex to snap a three-match road losing streak.

Texas A&M (12-4-0, 5-3-0) prevailed over Kentucky (9-4-3, 3-3-2) in a match where the defenses took center stage. Kentucky owned advantages in shots (8-4) and corner kicks (4-2), but the Aggies held the edges in shots-on-goal (3-2) and the scoreboard.

With not much offense brewing for either squad in the first half, Texas A&M took advantage of their lone shot in the stanza. The first half was in its waning moments when Mikaela Harvey controlled the ball 10 yards to the offensive side of the center stripe. Harvey dumped a pass off to Watt who raced between two defenders to get to the penalty arc and then used an evasive maneuver to get by a third defender before uncorking a shot from 18 yards, putting it passed Kentucky goalkeeper Ayanna Parker on the left side for her fourth goal of the season with 4:58 remaining in the half.

There were just four shots combined in the first half with both teams notching a shot-on-goal and Kentucky had the lone first-half goal.

The Maroon and White had two chances to tack on an insurance goal midway through the second half but were unable to get the ball past Parker. In the 70th minute, Watt had a shot from eight yards out on the right side, but was stonewalled by Parker and on the ensuing corner kick, Kate Hajdu hit a shot from six yards out that the Kentucky goalkeeper snuffed out.

Mia Hummel recorded her third shutout of the season, making one save. The Aggies also got a defensive save on the backline by Grace Wright who pounced on a ball coming off the foot of Tanya Samarzich inside the six-yard box.

Texas A&M returns to action on Friday when the Aggies host the Arkansas Razorbacks in a 7 pm contest at Ellis Field.

TEXAS A&M QUOTES

Head coach G Guerrieri

On the win: That's a great win for us. We put together a gritty effort and got a much-needed road win. I thought Ally (Watt) had some brilliance and scored a great goal when offense was hard to come by in the first half. We played smart in the second half. We were better at maintaining some possession and did a good job of keeping Kentucky's offense from getting good shots.

On the defense: It was a strong performance all across the backline. I was proud of the way that Kendall Ritchie played in her first career start. She really neutralized one of Kentucky's top offensive players. Ashlynn Harryman also had a really good performance. She really snuffed out any attack the Wildcats tried down the middle of the field.

On returning to Ellis Field: Getting a road win is really nice. It's even better when you have the rest of the weekend to rest and regroup to get ready for two games next weekend in front of the 12th Man.