Match Day Preview: Missouri

Thursday, October 29

Columbia, Mo.

8:00 PM

Texas A&M

Missouri

Oct 27, 2015 | Soccer

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Aggies wrap up the regular-season on Thursday when they travel to Columbia for a match against league co-leader Missouri. Thursday's match marks the first time in their four seasons in the SEC that the Maroon and White enter the season finale without an opportunity to claim the league crown. Texas A&M (13-5-0, 6-4-0 SEC), two-time defending league champion have an opportunity to doom the Tigers' title hopes. Missouri (9-4-4, 7-2-1 SEC) shares the conference lead with Florida who plays at Georgia on Thursday night. Ole Miss, who hosts Vanderbilt on Thursday, are one point off the lead and the only other team with title aspirations on the final day.

FOLLOW THE ACTION
Thursday's match is being televised on the SEC Network. The match will be available digitally on mobile devices, tablets, PCs and connect-TVs for SEC Network subscribers whose cable/satellite packages allow access to SEC Network+ through the WatchESPN app and SECSports.com. The match can be heard on the RadioAggieland app, RadioAggieland.com and 12thMan.com. Thursday's match can be heard on SportsRadio 1150 The Zone and 102.7 FM in Bryan-College Station.

CONFERENCE WINNING
The Aggies have finished with a winning record in league play in all 20 years it has been aligned with a conference. The closest the Aggies have finished to the .500 mark in league play is the 5-3-2 (.600) record they posted in Big 12 play in 2003. This marks the first time since 2003 that the Aggies will not finish either first or second in the conference. In 20 seasons of league action, A&M has finished first or second in the conference standings on 17 occasions with the other finishes coming in 1998 (3rd Big 12 - 7-2) and 2003 (5th Big 12 - 5-3-2).

LAST TIME OUT - OLE MISS
The Aggies dropped a see-saw affair to the Rebels, 4-3. Texas A&M took a 3-2 lead in the 63rd minute, but a pair of defensive lapses in a 71 second span down the stretch spelled doom for the Maroon and White. After the Rebels drew first blood less than two minutes into play, the Mikaela Harvey knotted the match with a shot into the left upper 90 from 20 yards out. Ole Miss reclaimed the lead three minutes later and took a 2-1 edge into halftime. Haley Pounds scored an equalizing penalty kick in the 54th minute and bent in a corner kick from the left arc in the 63rd minute to give A&M its first lead of the match, 3-2. Rebels' leading scorer CeCe Kizer scored goals in the 70th and 71st minute to wrestle the lead away and Ole Miss held off the A&M's late attacks for the win.

SERIES VS. MISSOURI
The Aggies are 15-5-1 all-time against Missouri. The teams did not meet last season, ending a string of 18 consecutive years the squads had met, dating back to 1996. The Aggies have won both meetings between the teams since they joined the SEC in 2012, by identical 2-1 margins. The Maroon and White own a 6-3 all-time advantage in matches played in Columbia. Texas A&M won the first seven matches of the series, but the series has been more closely contested since 2003 with the Aggies owning an 8-5-1 edge.

SCOUTING MISSOURI
After dropping a 2-1 decision at LSU on October 9 to drop to 5-4-4 overall and 3-2-1 in the SEC, the Tigers rattled off four consecutive wins to find themselves in a tie atop the league standings with Florida heading into the regular-season finale. Missouri has SEC wins against Auburn (2-1), Kentucky (3-1), Ole Miss (2-1), Georgia (2-0), Tennessee (3-1), Alabama (2-1 - ot) and Vanderbilt (1-0) and a tie against Mississippi State. The Tigers dropped SEC matches against South Carolina (1-0) and LSU (2-1). Missouri had mixed results in non-conference action, going 2-2-2 with wins against TCU (2-0) and Purdue (3-2- ot), draws against SMU (1-1), Oregon State (0-0) and Northwestern (0-0) and losses against Indiana (1-0) and Nebraska (1-0).

The Missouri attack comes from all different angles as the Tigers have five players with three or more goals. Savannah Trujillo leads the team with three tallies, followed by Sarah Flynn, Jessica Herrman, Jessica Johnson and Reagan Russell with three goals apiece. Johnson is the team's leading scorer with 10 points on three goals and four assists.

Two goalkeepers have split action for Missouri. Kristen Rivers has logged 928 minutes in goal, notching a 0.97 goals-against average, 33 saves and two shutouts. Kelsey Dossey has played 695 minutes, registering a 0.52 goals-against average, 17 saves and three shutouts.

TEXAS A&M OWNS LONGEST ACTIVE 15-WIN SEASON STREAK
Texas A&M entered the 2015 campaign with 11 consecutive 15-win seasons, the longest active stretch in Division I. The only other team to enter the season with a double-digit stretch was Florida State with 10 consecutive 15-win seasons. Stanford (9) and Florida (8) were the only other schools with more than five consecutive 15-win campaigns. In their first 22 seasons, the only two years the Aggies have not reached the 15-win plateau are 1998 (14-8) and 2003 (13-6-3). The school record for victories stands at 22, set last season with a 22-3-2 mark.

                CONSECUTIVE 15-WIN SEASONS ENTERING 2015
                Texas A&M         11
                Florida State       10
                Stanford              9
                Florida 8

HUMMEL RACKING UP SHUTOUTS
Despite not starting three league contests, freshman Mia Hummel shares the SEC lead for most shutouts in conference action (four) with Ole Miss's Marnie Merritt. The rookie goalkeeper has recorded shutouts against Mississippi State, Alabama, Kentucky and Arkansas.

RETURNING OFFENSE
The Aggies return just seven of 71 goals (9.9 percent) from last season. Janae Cousineau accounts for six of the returning goals and Haley Pounds notched one goal in 2014. A&M returns 14 of 60 assists from 2014. Karlie Mueller had the highest total among the returnees with five. Cousineau, Pounds, McKayla Paulson and Mikaela Harvey each notched two assists in 2014. Cousineau's 14 points last season is the most among the returnees.

Texas A&M's 11 returnees combined for just seven goals and 14 assists (28 points) during the 2014 campaign. Through 18 games, the same 11 returnees have notched 26 goals and 20 assists (72 points).

WINNING
With their win against Alabama on October 9, the Aggies guaranteed themselves their 23rd consecutive winning season - the entirety of their life as a program. The closest the Aggies have finished to the .500 mark is the 14-8 (.636) record they posted in 1998.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
The Aggies welcomed nine freshmen to the squad this season and they've made the immediate impact that was necessary for a strong start to the season. Kate Hajdu and Emily Bates lead the group with 13 starts, followed by Ally Watt with nine starts and Brittany Crabtree with eight. Mia Hummel has seven starts in goal for the Aggies and Kendall Ritchie started the Kentucky game in place of Karlie Mueller. Amethyst Kelly, Claudette Lassandro and Margaret Schmidt have all seen relief action.

Hajdu was named the SEC Freshman of the Week the opening weekend and Bates earned the honor for the fourth week of action. Bates ranks second on the team with 15 points on five goals and five assists. Hajdu has three goals and three assists. Ally Watt has four goals on the year, all in SEC play. Crabtree has two goals and one assist. Lassandro has one goal and Schmidt has one assist on the season.

MUELLER AMONG ACTIVE LEADERS IN GAMES PLAYED
After missing the match against Kentucky due to a vicious elbow to the head sustained against Auburn, Texas A&M senior Karlie Mueller fell to 16th in the nation and fifth among SEC players in career matches played with 85 caps. She trails on Florida's Christen Westphal (89) and Claire Falknor (86) and South Carolina's Stevi Parker (86) and Caroline Gray (86) among SEC players. Mueller has made 73 career starts and owns 20 career assists, including 10 as a sophomore in 2013. Her first career goal came in her 6,047th minute of play, scoring a golden goal in the 109th minute of a 2-1 victory against North Texas.

GUERRIERI REACHES 400-WIN MILESTONE
Texas A&M head coach G Guerrieri ranks among the leaders in winning percentage and victories among active Division I coaches. With a career record of 407-126-29 (.750), he ranks fifth in victories and sixth in winning percentage (minimum five years as a Division I head coach). Guerrieri ranks fifth all-time among NCAA Division I coaches in victories, trailing only North Carolina's Anson Dorrance (792), Connecticut's Len Tsantiris (541), Florida's Becky Burleigh (449) and Santa Clara's Jerry Smith (435).

SENSATIONAL SOPHOMORES
After getting a year of seasoning under the auspices of last year's nine-player senior class, Texas A&M's four sophomores came out like gang busters this season. The quartet accounted for 17 goals and 10 assists for 44 points through the first 10 weekends. Haley Pounds has produced 26 points with 11 goals and four assists, including her first career hat trick against Abilene Christian. She was named the SEC Offensive Player of the Week the opening week when she logged one goal and four assists. After going without a goal in her first 22 career matches, Mikaela Harvey has scored a goal in six of the last 17 contests. McKayla Paulson notched the first two goals of her career, both in the win at Rice, and added a goal against Mississippi State and assists against UC Irvine and North Texas. Stephanie Malherbe logged her first career goal in the 2-1 win against then No. 10 Florida and has added three assists. The four sophomores all played at least 1,400 of the 1,639 minutes on the season with Paulson playing every second of the matches.

FILLING THE HOLE IN GOAL
With the exit of Jordan Day and Renee McDermott, the Aggies lost all but 31 of their goalkeeper minutes from the last four seasons. Day and McDermott played every minute of 2012 and 2013. In 2011, Megan Majewski played 17 minutes in goal. Last season, Taylor Saucier played 14 minutes in Texas A&M's NCAA Championship first round win against Houston Baptist, for the only action in her career entering the 2015 campaign.

On the season, the Aggie goalkeepers have combined to register a 1.04 goals-against average and eight shutouts. Saucier has started 11 contests, logging 920 minutes. She owns a 1.08 goals-against average, 35 saves and two shutouts. Saucier's goals-against average when PKs are taken out of the equation, stands at 0.88. Mia Hummel has seen action in 10 matches, including seven starts. She has yielded eight goals, made 18 saves and owns shutouts against Mississippi State, Alabama, Kentucky and Arkansas. The pair combined to record shutouts against Northwestern State and UC Irvine.

PAULSON EARNS EARLY IRONMAN HONORS
Defender McKayla Paulson leads the Aggies in minutes played, working the entirety of the first 18 matches for 1,639 minutes of play. Grace Wright (1,620), Ashlynn Harryman (1,549), Haley Pounds (1,530), Mikaela Harvey (1,523) and Stephanie Malherbe (1,453) are all averaging over 80 minutes per Texas A&M match.

SUCCESSFUL SENIORS
Janae Cousineau, Kristi Leonard and Karlie Mueller represent one of the winningest active senior classes in the nation. The trio have enjoyed a record of 72-18-5 over their four years, the third-best win total in the nation. Florida State's seniors are 78-9-6, followed by Virginia 77-9-4.

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UP NEXT
The Aggies will open the SEC Tournament on Wednesday, November 4 in Orange Beach, Alabama. The Aggies will be seeded between No. 4 and 6 and will play Auburn, Ole Miss or South Carolina.