Baseball avenged

Effective: One shot on goal for the win. Defense ruled the match and provided the hard fought Aggie result.

I didn't see the game but obviously good win with defensive effort. For this team to advance to the 2nd round is quite incredible considering where the team was just 4 weeks ago.

A defensive battle to be sure. TCU really but the pressure on the final 15-20 minutes and there were a few dicey moments. But overall, A&M was the better team.

Harvey, Malherbe and Harryman were standouts. Harvey seemed her old self, playing without her leg wrapped for the first time I can remember. She set up the goal with a brilliant through ball that I believe Pounds crossed for the Malherbe finish. Harvey was all over, taking her usual physical punishment and working back hard on defense, as well as patrolling the midfield.

We had little in the way of offensive firepower, as noted only one shot on goal.. There were a few shots that were nowhere near frame. However, I only recall TCU serving up anything really dangerous twice. A&M only earned one corner kick all night and it was launched behind the goal, so a wasted opportunity. Outside backs continue to struggle with aimless long balls, launched to nobody, nowhere.

Bates looked good but was closely marked and fouled a few times when she became dangerous. The ref was not great, which is not new.

Our midfield can compete with USC if they play at least to the level they did last night. When I say midfield I am referring to Harvey, Malherbe and Pounds. We lack scoring, which will become even more difficult against an outstanding SC defense that boasts the Pac 12 Goalkeeper of the Year, and three All Pac 12 performers who are defenders. We've seen that this team can compete against ANYBODY, so I expect it to be an exciting match next Friday!

I thought it was a really nice crowd and playing Saturday night helped. If it had been here it would have been Friday competing against volleyball and basketball. It did not seem a very loud crowd and I think a lot of people came because it was they don't host many NCAA events other than baseball. They messed up the player introductions not doing it until after the players left the field after the National Anthem. There were several hundred Aggies there which didn't became evident until after the game when the team came over to the stands to celebrate.
I would Haley to the list of players who had a good game. She ran from endline to endline despite behind held around the shoulders and the waist when she was running in front of the stands. The lineup last night was the one we expected to have at the start of the season except for Piper in place of Kate.
I thought we played about the same that we had been playing, not being able to possess the ball but we had it a little more than the USC game. Their best chances came early in the second half but I thought the last 15 minutes we were better able to keep the ball out of our defensive third and keep it in their defensive end. They were really attacking and I didn't see how we were going to keep them from scoring. But we did and that's all that counts. The only other thing I would like to have seen was Sarah in the game. Before the UK game the SEC Tournament was in doubt and now we are in the round of 32 with a chance to go to the college cup. Amazing.

I don't agree with the over optimistic assessment of that game. I thought TCU controlled the ball prior to our goal as well as after the goal. Though I think player v player A&M is better, there is no doubt that TCU possessed better as a team than we did and had several near goals. Two off the top of my head were one where Rice was barely tall enough to tip a shot over the goal, and another that rolled wide by a couple inches. I think the reason we lack scoring is because the defense does not give the offense as much opportunity. While they did a good job keeping the ball out of the net, they did a terrible job of making productive passes. And not just the outside backs. I think our midfield and forwards did well all considering. Harvey was the best player on the field. I just think the defense needs to calm down and pass the ball to feet rather than boom it 100 yards downfield or try to feed through balls through the entire opposing team.