As regular season's end nears, G Guerrieri breaks down the Aggies

Texas A&M Soccer Coach G Guerrieri

On Sunday’s win against Kentucky…

"Well, going into the game, obviously, we wanted to put Kentucky off balance and put ourselves in a position to get the ball and move the ball. We got off to a bit of a slow start and you can give a lot of credit to Kentucky for that. You know, we had a lot of sort of giveaways to start with; we didn’t really play within ourselves in the first half. Ally with a great goal, with a great individual effort and some good little combinations to get us into that position for her to score. Then, really in the second half even though we didn’t score again, we had other options to do it and I thought our defense was rock solid.

"You know, going on the road in this league is tough, but winning in Lexington, just like we won in Gainesville earlier in the year, not only shows the level of player that we have here, but that we are getting better and better and better. People like Kendall Richie, to step in and do great in her first start; I think Ashlynn Harryman has been one of the most improved players in the league, she had another outstanding night; and then Mia Hummel getting another shutout in goal. All of those point to some really good things that can happen for us in the immediate future."
 

On freshman Ally Watt…

"Well, I think she’s a kid who is gaining confidence. She’s gaining some valuable experience against some tough teams. We always knew that she was going to be a difference maker on the team and for her to be the Freshman of the Week, this is the third we’ve had a Freshman of the Week. It’s the first time in eight years that a school has had three different freshmen be named Freshman of the Week in the SEC.

"So, I am pleased for her, but I’m pleased for really the whole team. We are getting better, we’re getting better, we’re getting better. We’re learning. Unfortunately we’ve had to learn some hard lessons, but now getting that road win just gets us that much more excited about being home this week for what is going to be a challenging game against Arkansas on Friday night and then another big, big game. Two top-20 teams in the Sunday night game."
 

On his take on the Aggie defense and Kendall Ritchie’s first career start…

"Well, Kendall has put herself in a good position for it. The reason Kendall was put in the starting lineup was because our captain got knocked out and is going through concussion protocol. So, we knew Kendall was having a great year, she has our full confidence, obviously now she has gained the confidence of the rest of the team. So, she gives us a great option. We’ll see how training goes this week as far as who is going to be in the lineup."
 

On the upcoming weekend…

"Last two home games. You know, you hear a lot of people say, ‘Yeah, we’re going to get out and really come see you guys play.' Well, this is really it. This is the last weekend, so if you don’t come this weekend, can we call those people liars, or how should we say it? I think they are going to be challenging games.

"Arkansas is a danger game for us, they have always been tough. When they were here it was a 4-3 game that we had to come back from behind. We were down 3-1 on three corner kick goals we had to come from behind to win 4-3. Up in Fayetteville, they were challenging 1-0 games there, too. So, you know that is how they are. They are tough to play. You have to give them a lot of credit, because they are fighters and they battle.

"We have to try to deal with kind of the ugliness that they try to bring to the game. They are a very effective team in the way that they play so we have to fight through that and keep our concentration and keep our focus on sticking to our game plan. I think we’ll have a good game plan to open them up, but weather is supposed to be challenging this Friday night and clearly they are challenging.

"Ole Miss is having a great season. They’ve got a win over South Carolina, a win over Auburn and both of those were at home. So, they are a team that was really disappointed last season when they didn’t make the SEC tournament. Well, they are clearly in the SEC Tournament now and are tied with us in second place in the league. So, I think that’s going to be more of an attractive game. They like to put the ball down and play. I think that will be a real good game for our crowd to enjoy."