A talented & balanced group of seniors is ready to lead the way for Aggie Soccer in 2017.
By: By: Thomas Dick, Texas A&M Media Relations
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When you ask Coach G Guerrieri about the outlook for the 2017 Texas A&M soccer campaign, he immediately gets a gleam in his eye. Luckily he's not playing poker, as the smile does nothing to belie the hand he's been dealt for the season, highlighted by his four senior aces – Mikaela Harvey, Stephanie Malherbe, McKayla Paulson and Haley Pounds.
The senior class is dripping with talent. The fearsome foursome has combined for 266 appearances, including 208 starts. They've accounted for 109 points on 36 goals and 37 assists. The quartet has played on squads combining for 51 wins, two Elite Eight runs and one College Cup appearance. The impact was immediate as they logged a combined 36 starts on the 2014 squad that claimed the SEC Double, winning regular season and tournament crowns.
Harvey earned All-America and All-SEC status as a sophomore during the Aggies' Elite Eight run. She has played in 68 games for the Aggies, making 53 starts. For her career, she has 29 points on nine goals and 11 assists as she anchors the attacking midfield.
Mikaela Harvey will play a key role in the attacking midfield for the Aggies in 2017.
"I don't know of anyone who carried more weight on her shoulders than Mikaela did last season as a severely injured playmaker for us," Guerrieri said. "She played really with a bad shoulder and she takes so much punishment from our opponents because she is such a focus of the wrath of the other team, that it took a toll on her physically last year. But she is so unselfish and she is so competitive. She wants this team to do well, so she rose to another level to help us get through last year. Everyone knows who No. 77 is at Texas A&M. She has been the heart and soul of our team for the last couple years."
Malherbe has 64 career appearances with 42 starts. The Temecula, California standout was brilliant enough to draw the attention of the South Africa National Team, earning a spot on the squad last season for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
"Stephanie is just a warrior," Guerrieri said. "She is someone who has been able to play a part in some many aspects of our team, as a forward, as a defensive midfielder, as a winger, as a leader and kind of as an example of what hard work and taking a professional demeanor can do. We know what a competitor she is. Stephanie is a great role model for our young players. They look at her as someone they want to be like."
An SEC All-Freshman Team player in 2014, Paulson has anchored the backline as a center back since her arrival in College Station. The Mansfield, Texas product has appeared in 63 matches, including 62 starts.
McKayla Paulson has 62 starts on the back line for the Aggies in her career.
"McKayla is one of the toughest people that we've ever coached," Guerrieri said. "She is someone who has been a starter with this team since her first game and she has done nothing but continue to carry a lot of weight for our backline. Now as we get newer players in, around her and in front of her, it's going to make her that much more important as our leader and as a captain."
Pounds is a two-time All-SEC performer. She's played in 71 games, including 51 starts, leading the team in scoring each of the last two seasons. The Spring, Texas native has 61 career points on 22 goals and 17 assists.
"Haley is one of the absolute nicest people at Texas A&M," Guerrieri said. "Since the first day that she stepped into our program she's helped to make it better. She is a really hard worker and a great student. She's been our leading scorer for the last two years, but I think she is poised to have her best year."
When you look at it on paper, one thing that pops out with the Aggies' 2017 senior class is the balance. They have all that talent, but the balance is remarkable.
"It's a really, really special class," Guerrieri said. "It's rare that you have a class with this much talent, but to have it so balanced. We have four players who have enough talent to be All-Americans and there's really no drop off in talent from one to the other. And if you look at where they play with one defender, two midfielders and a forward, they really give us balance."
On December 5, 2014, the foursome somberly walked off the pitch at FAU Stadium in Boca Raton, Florida, following their semifinal defeat against Virginia. Emotional embraces where shared with the 10 seniors as well as the rest squad that made the Aggies' first run to the College Cup.
This year's seniors, freshmen on the 2014 College Cup team, hope for a National Championship in 2017.
The season ended two wins shy of the ultimate goal, but for the four freshmen the future was bright and they had big plans to return to the College Cup and advance to the school's first championship match.
Those future plans haven't unfolded as the foursome envisioned. The last two years there has been flashes of success, including a return to the both the SEC Tournament championship game and the Elite Eight in 2015, but the league results fell well below the Texas A&M standard and the team was left shy of a revered College Cup return.
"It's been frustrating," Harvey said. "We were putting in the work and we had the talent, but we weren't getting results. Last year was really tough. It seemed like every game there was another injury. We tried to work through it, but it's tough when you have to piece together a different lineup every match."
Much of the team's issues the last two seasons were injury related.
In 2015, the Aggies suffered four one-goal losses in SEC play in a season they were expecting to challenge for their third league crown. Injuries limited the offensive attack with playermaker Emily Bates and set piece target and midfield stalwart Janae Cousineau missing a combined 12 games and playing at much less than 100 percent physically for the stretch run. The defense was also hampered with center backs McKayla Paulson and Margaret Schmidt missing a combined 16 matches and the Aggies forced to play goalkeeper roulette with Taylor Saucier and Mia Hummel both suffering injuries.
Last season, things got worse. The Aggies had to patch together a starting XI for much of the year with a rash of injuries running through the squad. The Aggies lost a total of 45 starting assignments among the preseason starting XI, an average of 2.14 per game. Texas A&M had four starters out of the lineup in their losses to Vanderbilt and Alabama. The Aggies also had three starters unavailable in their losses to South Carolina, Tennessee and Ole Miss.
"We learned a lot from last season," Pounds said. "We learned that we have to trust each other. We all have to be on the same page. It's a grind. You have to be willing to work hard and stay strong throughout the entire season even when things don't go your way."
Now in 2017, with the experience of a College Cup run along with all the trials and tribulations of the last two seasons, the four seniors have one thing on their mind.
"Our goal is to win a national championship," Malherbe said. "We have the talent. We know at this point it's about working hard every day and working as a team towards that goal."
The path for all four players the last three years has been different, but in each case it's resulted in honed talent, more skill and, most importantly, confidence that is through the roof.
"All four of them are much more confident than they arrived," Guerrieri said. "Both as players on the field and in their presence in the locker room. The last couple years they've carried more water than anybody to help us get back into the postseason to make run to the Elite Eight and to make the run that we made last year. As much as anything, I'm looking forward to the year for them because they've worked so hard to get here that I think this is going to be a special season and it couldn't happen at a better time for a better group of seniors."
Harvey's path has included earning All-America status as a sophomore, followed by a United States Under-20 National Team roster spot on the team's run to the CONCACAF U-20 Championship and U-20 World Cup qualifying. Along the way she battled through the disappointment of receiving a red card in a Sweet 16 match against Ole Miss, forcing her to miss the Elite Eight match the following week, and she played through various injuries last season that limited her effectiveness.
"We've grown from all that has happened the last two years," Harvey said. "We've learned to fight through adversity and we've learned how important it is to work as a team."
Malherbe has improved by leaps and bounds since 2014. Much of the improvement is attributed to last year's eight-month tour with the South Africa National Team. The stint climaxed at the 2016 Rio Olympics where she played all 270 minutes of the squad's games. At the Olympics, she shared the pitch with her hero and former FIFA Player of the Year Marta in a 1-0 loss to Brazil. The experience made Malherbe a much more polished player.
Stephanie Malherbe hopes success in the Olympics leads to a strong senior year.
"She matured greatly as a young woman," Guerrieri said. "But she also came back as a player who had much more of a professional attitude about her craft and how she was going to go about perfecting the skills that she needed to be successful. Her first touch was cleaner. Her passing was significantly better. All those things came from her experience of being in that environment for an eight-month period and training every day and doing the things at an international level. That really helped her out and so that can really help us out."
In addition to her improved play, she came back a completely changed person with teammates noting her improved confidence and her willingness to speak up as a leader.
"I think her confidence has just sky-rocketed," Paulson said. "I always joke with her after she came back from the Olympics, I was like 'Who is this Stephanie Malherbe?' This is a completely different Steph than I've ever known, just in terms of being willing to speak up and speak her mind and encourage the team. On the field, she just came into her own as a player and was just a major key for us in winning and doing well."
Paulson has been a warrior for the Aggies since her arrival on campus. With a team that was stacked with returners, she didn't expect to see the pitch as a rookie. She surprised everyone, even herself, by earning a starting spot as preseason camp and starting 20 of the 26 games during the 2014 College Cup run.
"I came in as a freshman not thinking I would play a minute," Paulson said. "I was just hoping to make into a game, much less become a regular starter. I never dreamed of having a freshman season like that."
She continued to lead the defense as a sophomore, but injuries sustained late in the season, as well as in the spring caught up with her and the entire 2016 season she had to have one of her ankles wrapped and wrapped and wrapped and wrapped.
"I was having to tape my ankle twice each game," Paulson said. "So I had very little ability to move and cut. I just felt slower. I felt like I just had this huge weakness that our opponents could exploit and it was really frustrating."
Paulson had surgery to correct the situation immediately after the 2016 campaign and sat out this spring's workouts while rehabbing. The result is the same stout defender, but now with quickness and mobility that was lacking the last two seasons. The prospects for Paulson in 2017 has the coaching staff brimming with excitement
"Her ability to move was so severely limited last year," Guerrieri said. "It's really cool that she is going to have one more year to put last season behind her. She is faster, she is more agile, she has better dexterity and I think it's going to help her to be able to achieve the potential that she has as a great player."
As a freshman, Pounds was a reserve on a squad full of attacking options. She played in 23 matches, including three starts, logging one goal and two assists. She fought through severe depression following that rookie year. Battling through the darkness she emerged as a different person on and off the field.
Haley Pounds had eight goals & 10 assists as a junior in 2016.
"She has matured as a person, as a player, as a leader," Paulson said. "She's not somebody who's going to yell and scream at people. She's somebody that everybody respects and if she says something people are going to do it. It's cool. I think her confidence has grown exponentially since her freshman year. You can see that confidence she has a leader also translate to how she plays on the field. She's going to take people on, she's going to take shots and she's going to make it happen on the field too."
Pounds started all 26 matches in 2015, tallying 31 points with 13 goals and five assists. Her outstanding play continued last season, scoring 26 points on eight goals and 10 assists in 21 starts. In her senior season, Pounds is expecting more.
"Scoring is something I need to do a better job of," Pounds said. "I continue to work on finishing my chances and those easy opportunities. This year I want to put everything away."
The impact of this year's senior class has often compared to that aforementioned 2014 class. The quartet doesn't think it's a coincidence. The 2014 seniors put a lot of effort into setting the future course of the program and it's something that didn't go unnoticed.
"I think one thing that that senior class did so well was just establishing a dedication on the team and establishing vision early," Paulson said. "They had a vision for what they wanted for the season before we were knee deep in season. It was cool because you could tell that class knew 'We're making it there. No ifs, ands or buts.' But they also didn't just say it. They did it and they showed it as they stayed after practice 30 minutes or when they came early 30 minutes or when they did the extra things."
So while all of the focus is on winning championships this season, this year's seniors want to make sure they have an impact on the program down the road. Paulson says the seniors understand that this is a chance to build a legacy.
"I think one of the important things to realize as a senior is 'Okay, they're going to move on after me. How can I set these girls up to do great even after I'm gone?' I think it's going to be fun to step into that role and mentor our future leaders."
