Aggies Drop SEC Tournament Title Match, 2-1, to Florida

Sunday, November 8

Orange Beach, Ala.

1:00 PM

Texas A&M

15-6-1

Florida

17-3-1

Texas A&M

FLORIDA

Photo by: Eric Glemser

Nov 08, 2015 | Soccer

Box Score

By: Texas A&M Media Relations

ORANGE BEACH, Alabama – The Texas A&M Aggies came up short in a bid to win their third consecutive SEC Tournament championship, falling to the Florida Gators, 2-1, in the title match Sunday afternoon at Orange Beach Sportsplex.

Despite dictating the flow of play in the first half, Texas A&M was doomed by a pair of Gators' set pieces as Florida went into the intermission with a 2-1 lead. The Gators converted on a corner kick in the 29th minute and scored on a free kick in the 43rd minute. Florida scored two goals on just three first-half shots. Texas A&M owned the first-half shot advantage, 7-3, but Gators' goalkeeper Kaylan Marckese made three first-half saves.

Texas A&M (15-6-1) drew first blood in the 22nd minute with beautiful possession around the penalty box. With the Aggies on a 3-on-2 attack, Mikaela Harvey controlled the ball at the top of the box and sent a pass to Emily Bates on the left. Bates charged towards the goal before chipping a pass off the Haley Pounds on the right. With the Florida keeper drawn out of position, Pounds struck a left-footed strike into the left-upper 90 for the 1-0 lead.

After not recording a shot in the first 28:38, Florida evened the match with a corner kick. Christen Westphal sent the offering in from the left arc. The service found a piece of Savannah Jordan before Brooke Sharp sent a volley in from 15 yards.

Florida (17-3-1) snatched the lead with 2:48 remaining in the first half. The Gators were granted a free kick from 20 yards out with Westphal putting a shot over the wall into the net for the 2-1 lead.

In the second half the rain and high winds arrived, dampening Texas A&M's comeback bid. The Aggies were able to must three second half shots, but only one on frame.

For the match, the Aggies owned the advantages in shots (10-7) and shots-on-goal (5-4). Florida owned a 4-2 edge in corner kicks.

Texas A&M now awaits word on an NCAA Championship assignment. The selection show is slated for Monday at 3:30 pm Central on NCAA.com.

2015 SEC Women's Soccer Tournament All-Tournament Team
Kala Faulkner, Auburn
Brooke Ramsier, Auburn
Alex Arlitt, LSU
Natalia Gomez Junco, LSU
Emily Bates, Texas A&M
Mikaela Harvey, Texas A&M
Ally Watt, Texas A&M
Savannah Jordan, Florida
Claire Falknor, Florida
Christen Westphal, Florida
Meggie Dougherty Howard, Florida

TEXAS A&M QUOTES

Head Coach G Guerrieri
On the match…
That's a tough result for us, but you have to give a lot of credit to Florida. They played well, and despite us creating a number of pretty good scoring chances, we didn't hit the target and they were super in finishing their set pieces.

On the squad…
I'm proud of the fight in our young team. This will be a hard lesson to learn, but we will improve from it. So now we will head home and await tomorrow's NCAA Championship assignment.