Going to OT

Bama dominating us the first 5 minutes of OT

Alabama wins in OT

Not surprising, we did nothing in OT

Our spacing was bad the entire match and we looked slow and tired, especially in ot.

Ban Away Games

Alabama wanted it more. They won most of the 50/50 balls and generally out hustled the Aggies. Rice played one heck of a game to keep the Aggies in the game.

Yeah, Rice earned her paycheck today. Sadly the effort didn't pay off. We're getting down to must-win territory. If we can get one or two injured player back for this Thursday's game then maybe we can upset USCe and start to get things back on track.

Not sure if we had a more costly win than against Georgia. Lost both Kate and Emily there. We had some decent chances at the goal but when you get them you need to make them count. Brittany played more minutes than any other game this season. Missing Stephanie and Kate in midfield is really showing up. After USC on Thursday we don't play for a whole week. The foul that gave them a pk was just inside the penalty box. How many times have we seen the ref place the ball just outside the box on a call like that.

It will still be a couple weeks before we get Malherbe and Bates back. We need to win these games so we will still have a chance when they get back.

Effort and overall play was better tonight than against Vandy but we got worn down late in the game and had nothing left in OT. Rice played well. The backline was better today but still gave up the slotted pass through on the winning goal in OT. The midfield remains nonexistent even with a 50% Harvey out there. The PK against Wright was questionable at best but Alabama probably deserved a goal based on the run of play for most of the game.

Any realistic chance of garnering a 4 seed in the NCAA tournament is now gone, but with a few more losses in the next few weeks A&M could be in serious danger of missing the tourney altogether. Remember that we don't have much to point to as far as signature wins RPI-wise and the remaining schedule is weak. The injury situation this season might be the worst I've ever seen it under Coach G and we simply don't have the depth to continue to compete at a high level, especially when we are relying on a bunch of freshmen to carry the load. If we can avoid a long losing streak before getting some starters back like Bates, there's still a chance to prevent a disastrous season. But right now things are not looking good.

The last time A&M was this reliant on freshmen was 2011. That group (Monogue, Groom, Edwards, Balily, Kunz, Streight, Day, McDermott, Perry, Brinson) was quite a bit more talented than the present freshmen. As I recall, the 2011 freshman scored a lions share of the team's goals.

This year's group works hard and appears very committed but they just don't have the same ability to alter the outcome of the game. Maybe they just need a little more time to come together.

The 2011 team had a rocky start but then found their way a handful of games into the season and produced a good year. That group also had the benefit of some strong leadership from players like Lenz, Young, Mathias, Gnatzig, Schmidt, Skelton, West, Balaguer. Im afraid that the chemistry and talent levels are very different between the 2016 group and the 2011 group.

I guess the point here is that A&M has not been in a spot like this for a long time. The coaches and players will need to come together like never before so produce a good year. Anything is possible.

The difference between the 2011 team and this team is that we do not have a Merritt. She was a constant scoring threat. Without her on the squad that season, I'm afraid we would have missed the tournament.

With Bates out, we lost our chief scoring threat and it will be a struggle to beat any teams that we can't shutout.

CDub-go back and look at who scored the goals in 2011. Mathias had a very nice season but those freshmen scored far more than 50% of the goals that year with the overwhelming leader being freshn Monogue.

You're probably right. I just remember having discussions throughout the 2011 season that we lucked out with Merritt. I know Kelley had a terrific freshman year and it was probably Annie's best. But I recall MM giving the team an identity before the freshmen made their mark on the program. Her presence on the field garnered a LOT of attention and gameplanning. That's what Emily Bates brings to the team and we are desperately missing that.

Midway through 2011 is the last time I recall being nervous about missing the tournament. But I'm getting old, you can't trust my memory.

And I'd go look at the stats if the 12thman website wasn't a pile of trash with dead links everywhere.

Even though we lost I thought the energy and play was much better than the Vandy and Bama games.

Sure seemed like the SC goal was a hand ball though

BQ_90 said:

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Sure seemed like the SC goal was a hand ball though

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There's a good reason it seemed like that.

That 2011 team started slowly with four early losses and then they beat North Carolina in OT. The team went in to win the Big 12 tournament. The freshmen scored a great deal from the first game all the way through the end of the season. The older girls were clearly the glue in the equation with Mathias being the primary leader. Oddly enough Wikipedia has the stats.