Match Day Preview: SEC Tournament Quarterfinal

Wednesday, November 4

Orange Beach, Ala.

2:30 PM

Texas A&M

Ole Miss

Nov 02, 2015 | Soccer

ORANGE BEACH, Alabama – Texas A&M, the two-time defending SEC Tournament champion, opens up defense of its crowns on Wednesday as the Aggies battle the Ole Miss Rebels in a quarterfinal match. The Maroon and White enter the contest with a six-match win streak at the SEC Tournament and a 7-1 all-time record in Orange Beach. The Aggies and Rebels met less than two weeks ago with Ole Miss winning a see-saw affair, 4-3 at Ellis Field.

The Aggies are looking for their eighth conference tournament title. In addition to winning SEC Tournament crowns the last two seasons, A&M won Big 12 Championship crowns in 1997, 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2011.

FOLLOW THE ACTION
Wednesday'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. Wednesday's match may be heard on Fusion FM - HD2 on HD radio at 95.1-2 FM locally.

SEC TOURNAMENT SCORELESS STRING
The Aggies enter Wednesday's contest with a 332-minute, 12-second scoreless string in SEC Tournament action. Texas A&M did not yield a goal during last season's SEC Tournament, outscoring foes 5-0. Jordan Day made 11 saves during the three shutouts, including six in the 1-0 championship win against Kentucky. The last goal the Aggies yield in SEC Tournament play came in the 28th minute of the 2013 championship match against Florida which A&M won 2-1.

LAST TIME OUT - MISSOURI
The Aggies prevented Missouri from claiming a share of the SEC regular-season title by playing the Tigers to a 1-1 draw. Ally Watt drew first blood in the 53rd minute scoring from 15 yards out on an assist from Mikaela Harvey. The Tigers were able to tie the game in the 62nd minute. Missouri controlled the action for much of the two overtime periods, but Danielle Rice, playing in her first game as a member of the Aggies, made four saves in the last 41 minutes to stave off defeat. Rice made a save on a Penalty Kick by Missouri's Candace Johnson in the second overtime to preserve the draw.

SERIES VS. OLE MISS
The Aggies are 3-1-0 all-time against Ole Miss with all of the meetings coming since Texas A&M joined the SEC. This year, Ole Miss won a see-saw affair, 4-3, in College Station. The Rebels drew first blood in the second minute and took a 2-1 lead into the intermission. Haley Pounds scored on a Penalty Kick and corner kick midway through the second half to give A&M a 3-2 lead. Ole Miss's CeCe Kizer scored a pair of goals in a 71 second span as the Rebels reclaimed the lead with 19 minutes remaining. In 2012, the Aggies traveled to Oxford to play then-No. 22 Ole Miss and came away with a 4-0 win. Annie Kunz knocked in a pair of goals and Shea Groom and Allie Bailey each scored once while Jordan Day made seven saves in the shutout. Last season, the Aggies scored a 2-1 win over then-No. 23 Ole Miss with Bianca Brinson scoring an unassisted goal and Groom punching in a penalty kick. Last season, the Aggies registered a come-from-behind, 2-1, win in Oxford. Maddie Friedmann scored in the 62nd minute to give Ole Miss a 1-0 lead. Bailey scored an equalizer in the 72nd minute and Groom tacked on the game-winner in the 79th minute.

SCOUTING OLE MISS
The Rebels finished third in the SEC with a 7-4-0 SEC record and own a 13-4-2 overall mark. Ole Miss scored league wins over Alabama (3-2), LSU (2-0), Arkansas (2-1 - 2ot), South Carolina (2-0), Auburn (2-0), Tennessee (2-0) and Texas A&M (4-3). The Rebels' league losses have come against Kentucky (4-2), Florida (4-1), Missouri (2-1) and Vanderbilt (1-0). Ole Miss boasts non-conference wins against Boise State (4-0), Louisiana-Lafayette (3-1), Austin Peay (5-0), Little Rock (1-0 - ot), Louisville (2-1) and Memphis (2-1 - ot) and own draws against Florida Gulf Coast (0-0) and UCF (2-2).

The Rebels' defense has been tough to penetrate in the first half, yielding just six goals and outscoring opponents, 17-6. Ole Miss has fared well in overtime affairs, going 3-0-2.

The Rebels feature a two-headed scoring threat, featuring CeCe Kizer and Addie Forbus. They entered the tournament as the only duo in the league with more than 10 goals apiece. Kizer has 29 points with a team-high 14 goals and one assist. Forbus has 28 points on 11 goals and six assists. Gretchen Harknett has 15 points with four goals and seven assists. Marnie Merritt has started all 19 matches in goal, logging 1,741 of the 1,783 minutes. She owns a 1.11 goals-against average with 73 saves and six 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
                * - have reached 15-win mark in 2015

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 19 games, the same 11 returnees have notched 26 goals and 21 assists (73 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.

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).

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 14 starts followed by Kate Hajdu with 13 starts. Ally Watt has 10 starts followed by Brittany Crabtree with eight. Mia Hummel has eight 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, Bates earned the honor for the fourth week of action and Watt earned the award after A&M's 1-0 win against Kentucky. Bates ranks second on the team with 15 points on five goals and five assists. Hajdu has three goals and three assists. Watt has five 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 86 caps. She trails on Florida's Christen Westphal (90) and Claire Falknor (87) and South Carolina's Stevi Parker (87) and Caroline Gray (87) among SEC players. Mueller has made 74 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 407-126-30 (.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 (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 regular-season. 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 18 contests and has added two 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. 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 1.03 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 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.

PAULSON EARNS EARLY IRONMAN HONORS
Defender McKayla Paulson leads the Aggies in minutes played, working the entirety of the first 19 matches for 1,749 minutes of play. Grace Wright (1,640), Haley Pounds (1,640), Mikaela Harvey (1,633), Ashlynn Harryman (1,631) and Stephanie Malherbe (1,518) 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 72-18-6 over their four years, the third-best win total in the nation. Florida State's seniors are 78-9-7, followed by Virginia 78-9-4.

NIP-AND-TUCK
Over the last three seasons, the Aggies are 26-7-5 in games decided by one game or less. This season, the Maroon and White are 5-3-1 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.

TOURNAMENT INTENSITY
All six of Texas A&M's seven SEC Tournament wins to date have been by one goal and the Aggies' highest goal output has been three goals against Georgia in last year's quarterfinal. Texas A&M won the 2013 SEC Tournament with just five goals on the back of three one-goal decisions. Last year, the Aggies notched 1-0 wins in the semifinal bout against South Carolina and the championship match against Kentucky.

MULTIPLE GOAL GAMES
The Aggies have had players record multiple goals in a game four times this season, including Haley Pound's hat trick against Abilene Christian on September 6. Pounds also had a two-goal effort against Ole Miss. Kate Hajdu scored two goals in the season opener, becoming just the fourth Aggie freshman to score multiple goals in a debut. Freshmen Emily Bates and Ally Watt each logged two goals in the Aggies' 4-0 blanking of Alabama.

8/21       Kate Hajdu (2) - at Rice (W, 4-2)
9/6         Haley Pounds (3) - ABILENE CHRISTIAN (W, 4-1)
10/9       Emily Bates (2) - ALABAMA (W, 4-0)
10/9       Ally Watt (2) - ALABAMA (W, 4-0)
10/25     Haley Pounds (2) - OLE MISS (L, 3-4)

CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT SUCCESS
The Aggies have a tradition of success at conference tournaments with an overall mark of 30-11-4 in league tournaments, winning seven conference tournament crowns, including SEC Tournament crowns the last two seasons.

A&M posted a 23-10-4 record at the Big 12 Championship and won the title in five of the tournament's first 16 years. The Aggies won titles in 1997, 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2011.

ALL-TIME SEC TOURNAMENT RESULTS
2012
W, 1-0 (ot) South Carolina - 10/31
L, 0-2             Auburn - 11/2
2013
W, 1-0           Auburn - 11/6
W, 2-1           South Carolina (#9) - 11/8
W, 2-1           Florida (#5) - 11/10
2014
W, 3-0           Georgia - 11/5
W, 1-0           South Carolina (#17) - 11/7
W, 1-0           Kentucky (#20) - 11/9

TEXAS A&M SEC TOURNAMENT RECORDS
INDIVIDUAL GOALS
Game
2, Liz Keester (vs South Carolina - W, 2-1 [semifinal]; November 8, 2013)
Tournament
3, Liz Keester (2013)
Career
3, Liz Keester (2013-current)

INDIVIDUAL ASSISTS
Game
1, 11 times
Tournament
2, Shea Groom (2013) & Kelley Monogue (2014)
Career
3, Shea Groom (2012-14) & Kelley Monogue (2012-14)

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UP NEXT
The winner of Wednesday's match will advance to Friday's 6 pm semifinal contest, playing either LSU or Missouri. The loser will head home to await the NCAA Championship selection show at 3:30 pm on Monday to receive their next assignment.