Match Day Preview: NCAA Championship Second Round

Friday, November 20

Clemson, S.C.

2:30 PM

Texas A&M

North Carolina

Nov 18, 2015 | Soccer

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Texas A&M Aggies travel to Clemson, South Carolina to battle powerhouse North Carolina in an NCAA Championship second round match. The clash features two of the five teams with the lengthiest active streaks of reaching the tournament. North Carolina is a appearing in their 34th consecutive NCAA Championship while the Maroon and White are in the midst of their 21st consecutive tournament.

Both squads won home matches last weekend with the Aggies scoring a 2-1 victory over Washington while the Tar Heels toppled Liberty, 3-0.

Texas A&M is looking to advance to the Sweet Sixteen for the 14th time overall and the 13th time in the last 17 seasons

The Aggies' offensive arsenal is paced by two sophomores and two freshmen. Second-year players Haley Pounds and Mikaela Harvey have 31 and 16 points, respectively. Pounds leads the team with 12 points and four assists and Harvey has six goals and four assists. Rookies Emily Bates and Ally Watt have 20 and 12 points, respectively. Bates has seven goals and six assists, and Watt boasts six goals, all in SEC action.

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The match can be heard on the RadioAggieland app, RadioAggieland.com and 12thMan.com. The match may be heard on SportsRadio 1150/102.7 The Zone locally.

NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Aggies are playing in their 21st consecutive NCAA Championship, one of five teams to play in each of the last 21 tournaments. The other schools to make it to every tournament since 1995 are North Carolina (1982-2014), Notre Dame (1993-2014), Virginia (1994-2014) and Penn State (1995-2014). A&M is 32-20-4 (.607) all-time in the NCAA Championship. The Aggies have appeared in the Sweet 16 on 13 occasions, advanced to the Elite Eight five times and made their first College Cup appearance last season.
Since 1999, Texas A&M has made 12 Sweet Sixteen appearances which is tied with Stanford for fifth in the nation for highest total during that span. The Aggies trail only North Carolina (16), UCLA (16), Virginia (15), and Florida State (14) over that stretch.

Sweet 16 - 1995, '99, 2000, '01, '02 '03, '05, '06, '08, '09, '12, '13, '14
Elite Eight - 2001, '02, '06, '08, '14
College Cup - 2014

ADVANCING TO GOOD COMPANY
Texas A&M has advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championship in each of their last 18 appearances. It marks the third-longest active streak behind only North Carolina (34) and Virginia (22). The Maroon and White have gone 16-0-2 during the span, advancing on PKs in 2003 (vs. SMU) and 2010 (vs. North Dakota State).
Since 1999, Texas A&M has made 12 Sweet Sixteen appearances which is tied with Stanford for fifth in the nation for highest total during that span. The Aggies trail only North Carolina (17), UCLA (16), Virginia (15), and Florida State (14) over that stretch.

TEXAS A&M EXTENDS LENGTHIEST ACTIVE 15-WIN SEASON STREAK
With the win against LSU in the SEC Tournament semifinal, the Aggies reached the 15-win mark for the 12th consecutive season. 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 entering the year 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
* - have reached 15-win mark in 2015

LAST TIME OUT - WASHINGTON
The Aggies advanced in their first round of action for the 18th consecutive season. The Maroon and White logged a 2-1 win over the Huskies. The Aggies took the lead midway through the first half when Kate Hajdu sent a nutmeg shot through a defenders legs and under a diving goalkeeper. In the 53rd minute, Haley Pounds corralled a 40-yard service from Ashlynn Harryman just outside the six-yard box and beat the keeper with a left-footed shot for the 2-0 lead. The Huskies scored in the 67th minute but were unable to muster an equalizer.

SERIES VS. NORTH CAROLINA
The Tar Heels rank as A&M's most-played non-former Big 12 opponent with the squads meeting 16 times. North Carolina owns a 14-2 edge in the all-time series. The Aggies two wins came in 2008 in College Station, 1-0, on an Ashlee Pistorius goal in double overtime and a 4-3 win in 2011 with Shea Groom scoring the golden goal in the first minute of overtime. Six of the Tar Heels wins have been by one goal, including two in overtime. North Carolina won the last meeting, 2-0, in Chapel Hill in an NCAA Championship Sweet Sixteen match.

SCOUTING NORTH CAROLINA
The Tar Heels are playing in their 34th consecutive NCAA Championship, the lengthiest string in history. North Carolina owns a 121-10-3 record all-time in tournament play and the Tar Heels boast 22 national titles, including 21 NCAA crowns.

This season, North Carolina is 15-4-1 overall and advanced to the second round with a 3-0 win against Liberty. The Tar Heels finished in a tie for third place in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 7-3-0 league ledger.
Alexa Newfield leads the squad with 25 points on a team-high 11 goals and three assists. Jessie Sharpa has added 24 points on eight goals and eight assists. Summer Green has 17 points on seven goals and three assists.

North Carolina has had two players split a wealth of the time in goal. Bryane Heaberlin has played 20 matches in goal, making 18 starts. She has logged 945 minutes in the woodwork, posting a 0.48 goals-against average, 24 saves and a 9-1-0 record. Lindsey Harris has played 870 minutes in goal, notching 19 saves, a 0.72 goals-against average and a 6-3-1 mark. The two have combined on 10 shutouts for the season.

CONSISTENT SUCCESS
G Guerrieri and North Carolina's Anson Dorrance are the only two coaches to appear in every NCAA Championship since 1995.

PENALTY KICK HISTORY
With their penalty kick shootout against Texas Tech in last season's NCAA Championship second round, the Aggies came out on the top end of their ninth consecutive shootout. Six of the nine advances have come in NCAA Tournament play, including the 2002 NCAA Sweet 16 in which A&M scored a decision against UCLA despite not recording a shot in the 110 minutes of game action. Rachel Lenz made a penalty kick in each of the last four shootouts, including the 2010 Big 12 Quarterfinal against Colorado, NCAA First Round against North Dakota State, 2011 Big 12 Quarterfinal against Kansas and Friday's NCAA Second Round against Texas Tech.
Three current Aggies took part in last year's shootout against Texas Tech with Allie Bailey making the opening kick, followed by successful attempts by Meghan Streight and Kristi Leonard as A&M advanced 5-3.
In the 2011 Big 12 Quarterfinal against Kansas, Bailey, Annie Kunz and Streight started the Aggies' out with three straight makes en route to prevailing 5-3.

IN THE PALMETTO STATE
The Aggies are making just their second trip to the Palmetto State and their first-ever visit to Clemson. Texas A&M made their first-ever appearance in South Carolina earlier this season to battle the Gamecocks, dropping a 2-1 decision.

EVERYBODY IS DOING IT
With Danielle Rice's two shutouts in the SEC Tournament, Texas A&M became the first SEC team to have five different goalkeepers record multiple shutouts over a two year span. In 2014, Renee McDermott logged four shutouts and Jordan Day notched three shutouts (all in the SEC Tournament). The Aggies had goalkeepers combine on two other shutouts during the year. This season, Mia Hummel leads the squad with four shutouts and Taylor Saucier and Rice have two apiece. The Aggies also have two combined shutouts in 2015.

        Shutouts in 2014 and 2015
        Renee McDermott (2014)                  4
        Mia Hummel (2015)                              4
        Jordan Day (2014)                                  3
        Taylor Saucier (2014-15)                      2
        Danielle Rice (2015)                              2
        Combined shutouts                              4
        Total                                                         19

RICE'S SUCCESSFUL DEBUT
Danielle Rice has been outstanding in her first five outings. In the regular-season finale, she entered the contest in the 69th minute with the score tied 1-1 against Missouri and made four saves, including a PK stop in the second overtime period to stave off defeat. In her first career A&M start, Rice posted a shutout in the Aggies' SEC Tournament quarterfinal win against Ole Miss and followed with a shutout in her next game, a 1-0 win against LSU. Rice also started the Aggies' 2-1 win against Washington in the NCAA Championship First Round. She owns a 0.67 goals-against average and 11 saves in 401 minutes of action. She spent her first two seasons at Creighton where she started all 36 games during her career, logging eight shutouts.

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 410-127-30 (.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 (794), Connecticut's Len Tsantiris (544), Florida's Becky Burleigh (454) and Santa Clara's Jerry Smith (438).

HUMMEL RACKING UP SHUTOUTS
Despite not starting three league contests, freshman Mia Hummel shared the SEC lead for most shutouts in conference action (four) with Ole Miss's Marnie Merritt. The rookie goalkeeper recorded league 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 23 games, the same 11 returnees have notched 28 goals and 25 assists (81 points).

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. Emily Bates leads the group with 18 starts followed by Kate Hajdu with 16 starts. Ally Watt has 14 starts followed by Brittany Crabtree with eight. On the backline, Kendall Ritchie has five starts and Margaret Schmidt has two starts. Claudette Lassandro made her first career start in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal. Amethyst Kelly and Margaret Schmidt have all seen relief action. Mia Hummel has eight starts in goal for the Aggies.

Hajdu was named SEC Freshman of the Week the opening weekend, Bates earned the honor for the fourth week of action and Watt earned the award after A&M's 1-0 win at Kentucky. Bates ranks second on the team with 20 points on seven goals and six assists. Watt has six goals on the year, all in SEC play. Hajdu has four goals and three assists. 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 11th in the nation and third among SEC players in career matches played with 90 caps. She trails on Florida's Christen Westphal (94) and Claire Falknor (91) among SEC players. Mueller has made 78 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.

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 23 goals and 14 assists for 60 points on the season. Haley Pounds has produced 31 points with 13 goals and five 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. Mikaela Harvey has 16 points on six goals and four assists. 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.

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 0.98 goals-against average and 10 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 11 matches, including eight starts. She has yielded nine goals, made 24 saves and owns shutouts against Mississippi State, Alabama, Kentucky and Arkansas. Hummel and Saucier combined to record shutouts against Northwestern State and UC Irvine. Danielle Rice saw her first action in the regular-season finale registering four saves in 41 blank minutes, including making a save on a penalty kick to stave off defeat. In the SEC Tournament quarterfinal, Rice recorded her first shutout at A&M with a 2-0 blanking against Ole Miss and she followed with a 1-0 shutout against LSU. For the season, Rice has an 0.67 goals-against average, 11 saves and two shutouts.

IRON AGGIES
Prior to exiting the contest with an injury in the 15th minute of the SEC Tournament semifinal, McKayla Paulson was the only Aggie to play every second of the 2015 campaign. Paulson has since missed two matches. Mikaela Harvey now leads the team with 1,993 minutes. Ashlynn Harryman (1,990), Haley Pounds (1,968), Stephanie Malherbe (1,895), Karlie Mueller (1,875) and Paulson (1,853) are all averaging over 80 minutes per Texas A&M match.
Harryman, Harvey, Malherbe and Pounds are the lone Aggies to start all 23 matches in 2015.

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.

CONFERENCE WINNING
The Aggies have finished with a winning record in league play in all 20 years it has been aligned with a conference. This season is the lowest conference winning percentage for the Aggies at .591. Prior to this season, 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 did 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 non-top-two finishes coming in 1998 (3rd Big 12 - 7-2) and 2003 (5th Big 12 - 5-3-2).

LONE STAR DOMINANCE
With their win against North Texas on September 20, the Aggies improved to 24-0-5 (.914) mark against in-state rivals since 2008, including an 11-0-4 record against their former Big 12 Conference colleagues. This season, A&M is 3-0-0 against teams from Texas, toppling Rice 4-2 in the season opener and Abilene Christian, 4-1, on September 6, in addition to the North Texas victory. Last season, A&M went 2-0-0 against Lone Star foe, dropping Stephen F. Austin, 1-0, on August 24 and Houston Baptist, 5-0, in the NCAA Championship first round.

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 75-19-6 over their four years, the third-best win total in the nation. Florida State's seniors are 80-9-8, followed by Virginia 80-9-5.
The trio has equaled the school record for wins by a class over a four-year span, matching last season's seniors who went 75-19-7 during their time in College Station.

NIP-AND-TUCK
Over the last three seasons, the Aggies are 28-8-5 in games decided by one game or less. This season, the Maroon and White are 7-4-1 in games decided by one goal or less. Last season, Texas A&M went 11-2-2 in one-goal games, including a pair of 2-1 victories in their run to the College Cup. The Aggies went 10-2-2 in the nail-biters in 2012, including all three of their wins en route to winning their first-ever SEC Tournament title.

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP ACTION AT ELLIS FIELD
The Aggies have been a tough opponent to handle in NCAA Championship action at Ellis Field. A&M owns a 25-4-1 (.850) record and the Maroon and White have advanced to the next round on 26 of 30 opportunities when playing on the friendly confines. The Aggies lost two of the first three NCAA Championship games at Ellis Field, against San Diego (5-3) in 1997 and SMU (1-0) in 1998. Since 1999, A&M has gone 24-2-1 (.907) and the Maroon and White have won their last 10 NCAA Championship matches at Ellis Field and 16 of their last 17. The last NCAA Championship loss for the Aggies at Ellis Field came against Texas (3-2) in 2007.

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UP NEXT
The winner will play the winner of the Clemson-Ole Miss game at 12 pm Central on Sunday.