Position Preview: Forwards
Thomas Dick, Athletics Communications
This is Part Two of 12thman.com's four-part series previewing the 2023 Aggie soccer season.
Maile Hayes led Texas A&M in scoring in each of her first two seasons, and last year she had little competition for the top honor. This season, the Aggies are hoping Hayes is joined by some more players in the double-digit goal club.
In the final 16 games of 2022, Hayes accounted for 10 of the Aggies’ 23 goals—with only Mia Pante and Kate Colvin joining her with multiple goals over the span. No doubt extra fire power up front would have made a difference in the season’s outcome, especially considering the four ties and five one-goal losses down the stretch.
G Guerrieri expects that extra fire power to be there in 2023 with the addition of two Power 5 transfers, the maturation of returning stable of forwards and the arrival of a talented freshman.
Sammy Smith and Jazmine Wilkinson turn up in Aggieland from Boston College and Arizona State, respectively. Smith tallied 23 goals and six assists in her four seasons with the Eagles, earning ACC All-Freshman recognition with a nine-goal effort in 2019. Wilkinson had five goals and five assists in her time with the Sun Devils, earning Pac-12 All-Freshman distinction during the 2020-21 campaign.
Junior MaKhiya McDonald scored five goals a year ago, but Coach G believes she has the capability to vastly increase that output in 2023. Eloise Descheneaux also showed offseason improvement as the Aggies’ other returning fulltime forward.
A trio of returning slash players are also expected to see some time up top, including Colvin, Andersen Williams and Lauren Geczik. Colvin scored four goals last season but was more known for her splendid services with a team-high eight assists. Williams is healthier than she has ever been since arriving in Aggieland and is expected to build on the limited action she saw in 2022 coming off an injury. Geczik missed her entire junior campaign with an injury but saw plenty of action as a forward as a freshman before spending all of 2021 on the backline.
We’ve got players who are coming back with experience and then we’ve got some new players who come in with different experiences from different places. Once we get that blended it will be fun to watch.G Guerrieri
KATE COLVIN
Colvin is one of the Aggies’ most experienced players this season. She owns 54 Aggie caps, including 38 starts. Colvin has registered 28 career points on nine goals and 10 assists. Last year she started all 21 games, recording 16 points on four goals and a team-high eight assists. She played 70-plus minutes in seven matches, including the last six of the seasons.
Coach G’s Take – “Kate she gives us the ability to change our formation. She can play centrally, but she can also play out wide, which means that when she's in the game, we can play her as a true winger and put her into a space to isolate one-versus-one against anyone that we want to expose on the other team. She's such a good one-on-one player and she gives us a real edge in any kind of individual duel that we want. She's fearless and tenacious in the way that she goes about the game. She's proven to be one of the best in setting up her teammates with her service, but she's also scored some of the most important goals in her time here at Texas A&M.”
ELOISE DESCHENEAUX
Descheneaux did not see action as a freshman. A two-year standout with the IMG Academy U19 Elite squad, she took advantage of the spring season to gain valuable minutes on the pitch.
Coach G’s Take – “Eloise had a really good spring. She has improved at putting herself in a position to score and had a breakout spring. She provides some really good depth at the position.”
LAUREN GECZIK
Despite missing the entire 2022 campaign, Geczik earned the respect and admiration of her teammates and was picked as a co-captain for 2023 along with Kenna Caldwell. She has played in 34 career matches for the Aggies, including 28 starts. Geczik boasts 13 career points on four goals and five assists. She started every match of the 2021 campaign on the backline, earning Academic All-District 7, as well as Texas A&M’s Most Improved Player and “Farmer’s Fight Perseverance Award” as a sophomore.
Coach G’s Take – “LG had to sit out last year after surgery. It was hard for her to just watch because she’s such a perfectionist in everything she does. She’s a student of the game, though, so she was able to soak in whatever she could and I think that perspective will help. She’ll never be a goalkeeper for us, but she’s good enough to play just about every other position on the field.”
MAILE HAYES
Hayes has been the Aggies’ top scorer each of her first two seasons. Last year, after a slow start due to injury, she caught fire in October becoming the first player in league history to earn SEC Offensive Player of the Week three times in the same month. She ended the year with 25 points on 10 goals and five assists, earning All-SEC First Team and United Soccer Coaches All-Southeast Region Third Team. In 37 career matches, she has notched 44 points on 17 goals and 10 assists.
Coach G’s Take – “Maile has been our leading scorer the last two years. She experienced a little bit of injury the past two years but was still able to lead our offense. We’re excited to have her back stronger than she’s been in the past. She remains a huge threat for us and is someone who can break a game open big time.”
TAYLOR JERNIGAN
Jernigan arrives in Aggieland after an illustrious career at San Antonio Reagan High School. She played nine seasons for Classics Elite (the same club as Carissa Boeckmann). She was three-time TASCO Class 6A All-Texas performer, including a first-teamer in 2022. She ended her career as Reagan’s all-time leader in goals with 90. Jernigan gained confidence this summer with seven goals and three assists playing for the San Antonio Blossoms of the WPSL.
Coach G’s Take – “Taylor is coming off a great summer in a semi-pro league. She has a good powerful frame and she is used to scoring goals. That’s what her role has always been growing up. She is someone we feel can create a lot of opportunities in front of goal.”
MAKHIYA MCDONALD
McDonald is looking to blossom in her third go-round in Aggieland. She enters the 2023 campaign with 39 caps, including 23 starts. The Lancaster, Texas, native has registered 16 career points on six goals and four assists. Last season, she started the season strong with five goals in the first eight matches but was unable to get on the board down the stretch.
Coach G’s Take – “Mak is somebody who has been able to play wide. With Mak we think she can play anywhere across the front line and with her pace she can stretch defenses. She’s proven she can beat people 1-on-1 and score in individual situations. She is always two inches from breaking a game open.”
SAMMY SMITH
Smith spent four seasons playing ACC soccer at Boston College. She appeared in 68 matches, including 66 starts. Smith logged 52 points on 23 goals and six assists in one of the most elite soccer conferences in the nation. She earned a spot on the ACC All-Freshman Team during the 2019 campaign, finishing second on Boston College in scoring with 18 points on eight goals and two assists. The last two seasons she combined to log 10 goals and one assist in 36 outings.
Coach G’s Take – “Sammy is someone we’re really, really excited about. She’s been an All-ACC player. She can be electrifying in the way she plays. We think she’s going to be one of the best forwards in the SEC this year.”
JAZMINE WILKINSON
Wilkinson arrived in Aggieland with three years of experience at Arizona State. She played 54 matches with the Sun Devils, including 38 starts. Wilkinson logged 15 points on five goals and five assists for her career. She earned Pac-12 All-Freshman Team recognition during the 2020-21 campaign. She hails from the same Whitecaps FC Girls Elite REX program that produced Aggies Mia Pante and Andersen Williams. Played on the Canadian National Team at the 2020 CONCACAF Women’s U20 Championship in the Dominican Republic, logging two goals and two assists in five matches.
Coach G’s Take – “Jaz is a Canadian international who’s been able to play up front and score some goals. She has experience in a really good conference and was a Pac 12 All-Freshman performer. She’s strong and great with her back to goal as a target player. She’s brilliant in the air. She’s really strong as far as being able to time balls and win balls in the air with her head.”
ANDERSEN WILLIAMS
Williams has battled through injuries her first three seasons and is now as healthy as she’s been since arriving in Aggieland. She played 17 of her 19 career matches last season, racking up 512 minutes as she worked back from injury. Her playing time found its crescendo in the SEC Tournament with 82 minutes in the Aggies’ match against Mississippi State.
Coach G’s Take – “Andy is one of the smartest players we have. She's multidimensional. As a youth international player for Canada she was a true winger. But I've seen her play for Vancouver Whitecaps as a wide defender. She's played as a defensive central midfielder for us in the past and even without any kind of training in that role because she has such a good soccer IQ. She was able to step right in and be able to pick it up immediately. She's very technical and poised in front of goal. She's somebody we feel like, almost anywhere that we have a need, she can fill that need. That makes her very, very valuable and it doesn't just pin her into one option to be able to get on the field.”
Upcoming Matches
