Soccer Wins Second Straight SEC Championship

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – On the night they highlighted their nine seniors, two of Texas A&M's golden girls scored goals giving the Aggies a 2-1 win over Georgia at Ellis Field and their second consecutive SEC regular-season title.

The Maroon and White claimed their second SEC regular-crown and by besting second-place Florida by one point in the league standings, the Aggies can now cross winning an outright title in their new conference off the bucket list.

The Aggies thought senior Bianca Brinson put them on the board early in the contest. Ashlynn Harryman lofted a ball into the box from midfield and Brinson appeared to get a head on the ball simultaneously as Georgia netminder Louise Hogrell got her mitts on it, but Brinson was deemed to have fouled the keeper and the goal was disallowed.

After numerous near misses in the first 15 minutes of action, the Aggies finally busted out of the scoring cocoon with a goal by senior Allie Bailey. Following the secondary action on a free kick by Karlie Mueller, the ball found the head of Janae Cousineau at the left corner of the six-yard box and she knocked it to Bailey who sent it into the goal with a back heel for the early bird special in the 18th minute.

Although things got precarious, Hogrell and the Bulldogs' backline was able to keep the Aggies from revving up the Gran Torino again before the end of the half. Hogrell made point blank saves on shots by Bailey and Brinson. Brinson immediately got another shot off, but it was snuffed out by Josie Roebuck on the endline.

A&M came seconds away from adding another goal right before the intermission. Bailey sent a corner kick in with 10 seconds on the clock. The initial attack melted, but Harryman gained control for the secondary attack. She launched a ball from 25 yards as the clock hit “00:01”, but time expired before it went over the head of the leaping Hogrell and into the net.

The Aggies owned the offensive stats in the first half, including 11-7 in shots, 6-1 shots-on-goal and 2-1 in corner kicks.

Two more A&M seniors worked in harmony on the trip to bountiful in the 52rd minute. Kelley Monogue corralled an errant Georgia pass 30 yards out and went on a charge towards the penalty box in the center of the pitch. She slipped a pass through two defenders to Shea Groom who unleashed a shot from near the penalty kick spot to the right of Hogrell for the 2-0 lead.

The Bulldogs would not go gentle into that good night, string together a series of passes to score in the 68th minute. Gabby Seiler worked down the left side of the pitch and passed the ball to Marion Crowder near the end line inside the penalty box. Crowder chipped it to Laura Eddy eight yards out just left of center and she poked it into the right side netting to trim the A&M lead to 2-1.

Four days after missing out on a chance to secure the SEC title in a 2-2 draw against South Carolina, the Aggies wouldn't let Walter slip back into Golden Pond as the Maroon and White owned possession for much of the last 20 minutes with freshmen Stephanie Malherbe and Mikaela Harvey milking the clock to send out the seniors with a title.

For the match, A&M owned the advantages in shots (19-14) and shots-on-goal (8-4) and the corner kick chances were even at 3-3.

In just her second start of the season, senior Jordan Day made three saves in goal to earn her 52nd career win.

With the win, the Aggies' senior class owns a 68-18-7 record which currently is four wins shy of the school-record of 72 set by the 2002 class.

The win improved A&M's record to 15-2-2, marking the 11th consecutive season the Aggies have reached the 15-win mark. The only two seasons the Maroon and White haven't won 15 games is 1998 (14-8) and 2003 (13-6-3).

Texas A&M returns to action on Wednesday for quarterfinal action of the SEC Tournament in Orange Beach, Alabama. The Aggies will play the winner of Monday's first-round match between 8-seed Georgia and 9-seed Arkansas in a 5 pm contest on Wednesday. 

TEXAS A&M QUOTES

Head Coach G Guerreri
On winning the SEC…
“That was a great game. Obviously, we are pretty excited. Any time you can win a championship in a conference, especially when you talk about a conference that is the SEC, is a really special night. Couldn't be happier for the girls. I thought it was a great performance all the way around. Georgia came in and had a really good game plan. They scored a great goal to make it very interesting there at the end. All in all, I'm really excited for the kids.”

On the impact of the seniors…
“They were talking during the ceremony on how many of our players have played more games than anyone else in the country. I think Allie Bailey has the fourth most starts of anyone in the NCAA, and probably Meghan Streight has the most. That type of experience—experience of winning championships—is something we feel very good about going into the postseason. But, our freshmen have also stepped up. You saw a great performance tonight by Haley. You saw a great performance there at the end to kill the game off by (Stephanie) Malherbe, and Mikaela Harvey in the middle of the field was dynamite tonight.”

Senior Forward Allie Bailey
On scoring the opening goal…
“I felt like we were on them that whole first half. BB (Bianca Brinson) had a goal but they called it back, so we knew it was important to try to get that first goal and not let them score. Janae (Cousineau) flicked it into the box and I knew that it was going to go in front of the goalie. So, I just tried to get there and flick it in.”

Senior Midfielder Shea Groom
On scoring her goal…
“Kelley (Monogue) and I, for the last four years, have been able to work together and build some chemistry, and tonight was just a display of that. It's really exciting. Kelley knows where I am at on the field, and she has given me hundreds of beautiful passes. I was lucky to get that one in tonight.”