Texas Aggie soccer returns home on Sunday to face #13 Pepperdine at 1:30PM. This will be the annual "Turn it Gold" game benefitting childhood cancer awareness. You can catch the game streaming on SEC+.

Texas A&M is 1-1-1 against the Waves all-time with the most recent match ending in a 0-0 tie. This is the return trip from that 2019 match in Malibu.

Pepperdine is typically a quality side, but this season, they are performing exceptionally well. At 8-1 on the season and ranked #13, Pepperdine comes to College Station expecting to win. They did, after all, just walk off of TCU's campus with a 1-0 win against the #5 Horned Frogs. Other notable wins have come on the road, including a 2-0 win at USC and a 4-1 victory at Vanderbilt. The Waves lone loss came to Long Beach State (1-2) in a match that Pepperdine dominated statistically.

Overall, Pepperdine has outscored their opponents 23-5 while outshooting them 177-68.

Not surprisingly, scoring has been led by fifth year senior forward, Joelle Anderson (#9). Anderson returns as a four-time all-WCC selection and has moved up to #4 on Pepperdine's career goal list with 29. She currently has 5 goals on the season as well as 2 assists. Pepperdine doesn't solely rely on Anderson on the offensive end 11 different players have goals across Pepperdine's 9 matches thus far.

Senior defender Trinity Watson (#13) anchors this extremely stingy defense. Watson also has multiple all-conference honors to her name and was a pre-season first teamer. Watson helps anchor this defense that has 5 shutouts on the season, but she has also totalled 3 goals and 3 assists herself. Watson doesn't take many shots, but when she does, she's deadly.

Redshirt senior Zoe Clevely returned to goal for the Waves this season. In the last meeting with A&M, Clevely tallied 7 saves. On the 2021 season, she has 25 total saves and 5 allowed goals.

I'll mention head coach Tim Ward here because he is Pepperdine soccer. Coach Ward is a native of the area and has coached the Waves since 1998. He has compiled an impressive 270-134-60 record across his 24 seasons at Pepperdine. He regularly has Pepperdine in the NCAA Tournament and they have 3 Sweet Sixteen appearances under him.

Pepperdine competes in the well-respected West Coast Conference, which often leaves them overlooked in favor of teams like Santa Clara, BYU, and Portland. Pepperdine does have 4 WCC championships in the sport and there should be quite the dogfight for this year's trophy between Pepperdine, BYU, and reigning national champions, Santa Clara.

All this to say that Texas A&M will have their hands full in this one. Pepperdine is stocked with talent on both ends of the field. As evidenced by their match at TCU, they are a hard working team with talent to boot. This is a side that limits their opponents opportunities and should outshoot the Aggies. A&M has to do better in getting their shots on frame or else they'll be in danger of getting shutout by Pepperdine again.

SOCCER Sun 19th Pepperdine 1:30 PM

• Turn it Gold
$3 admission at the gate if you wear gold to the match in support of childhood cancer awareness.

Free admission for attending survivors or those undergoing treatment and their families who register, for more information email us at 12thManMarketing@athletics.tamu.edu.

• Turn it Gold Scarves
Turn it Gold will be selling special edition GOLD scarves for $10 each, with all funds going toward the Turn it Gold fund.

• Youth Sunday Funday
Purchase 1 full price adult ticket & bring up to 4 kids for FREE.In-person gameday sales only. No advance purchases.

• Kids Zone
Pregame in the Northwest corner of Ellis Field.Includes a rotation of inflatables, face painting, balloon animals and more!

C'mon, Ags, let's get this one and send shockWaves throughout college soccer

Aggies give up an easy goal where Pepperdine possessed the ball from mid field to in front of our goal with no pressure. Strangely easy goal for Pepperdine.

I don't know what is up with Sample this year. She has not been herself. She was not good vs TCU. Had several tough moments today. I don't know if she's hurt, but it just seems like she's off.

I watched the Pepperdine-TCU game the other day and Pepperdine dominated that game. You don't see teams dominate possession vs TCU like they did. Very good team

Gave up a lack of focus early goal. Played them even since. Our younger players getting incredible experience. Need an equalizer early though I don't think Pepperdine will turtle.

They are far more aggressive on passes and closing on 50/50 balls. We need to do the same.

Poor reffing is making players chippy. Think our bench was just trying to give them support. But it's been a while and it's not much better.

Good shot just now!!

I commented on Boeckmann earlier and wanted to mention she played with a lot more energy and urgency with her playing time in the 2nd half.

I guess that is part of the learning curve for a freshman.

Pepperdine's passing was similar to what the top programs like FSU, UNC, UVA and UCLA do. Their goal came with Katie Smith up field on offense. Some of the offside calls against us were close. Chris Henderson of All White Kit had a tweet that said Pepperdine was his sleeper team for the College Cup.

My take on this game: Pepperdine identified our primary strength, and neutralized it, simultaneously taking advantage of our primary weakness.

Our primary strength is getting the ball up the wings and sending in crosses.

Our primary weakness is creative play straight up the middle from midfield to strikers.

So, their game plan was to quickly double-team any of our players carrying the ball up the wing in the final third. Our players kept trying to beat the double-team (with, predictably, limited success).

If our players in midfield were better at carrying the ball up the middle of the field, or combining short passes to work up the middle of the field, they would have found more room than normal, due to Pepperdine's commitment to shutting down the wingers.

That Pepperdine game plan worked well. In the second half, our wingers tried, with some success, to make their crosses as soon as they got the ball, resulting in angled crosses from 25-40 yards out, instead of square balls from the byline. But we just never had the right connection with a striker on those balls.

I suspect we're going to see more of this type of defending, as we wait for a midfield player to take a more aggressive leadership role in carrying the ball right up the middle.