Soccer: Ags survive scare, move into second round of NCAA Tourney

In the NCAA Tournament, style points don’t matter. Whether by one goal or ten, a win moves you into the next round and keeps your season alive.

Even if it isn’t pretty.

Behind an overtime, golden goal from junior forward Allie Bailey, the No. 13 Texas A&M soccer team survived a scare from the visiting Utah Utes 1-0 in the first round of the 2013 NCAA Tournament on Friday night. With the win, the Aggies (18-4-1) move on to the second round, while the season is over for Utah (10-5-6).

“We are obviously excited to get the result,” said A&M head coach G Guerrieri. “We knew Utah was a good solid team that would be hard to break down, and that proved to be the case tonight. I thought they had some really great performances across the board, and it took a special little goal to beat Utah tonight.”

Coming into the match, A&M knew the Utes would prove to be a tough test, but not many believed that Utah could come into College Station and steal a first-round game from the fourth-seeded Aggies.

As the minutes ticked by and no score had been recorded by the home team, the crowd became antsy and the slightest bit of doubt began to set in among the A&M faithful.

Then, with the contest moving from regulation into sudden-death overtime, things seemed to begin favoring the Utes – especially considering their experience in overtime this season.

On the year, Utah has played in 10 overtime games to just two for the Aggies.

“We knew that they had been in overtime a bunch this season, but we didn’t break that to our players before the game,” stated Guerrieri. “It was in the back of my mind.”

Utah opened the overtime period on the attack and pushed for control, but a strong performance from the Aggie backline kept the visitors from getting a shot off over the first two minutes of extra time. All-in-all, the A&M defense gave up a total of 12 shots, but just three of those required a save from Aggie keeper Jordan Day.

And while the play of the backline in OT was impressive, even more impressive was what happened next.

With just over two minutes gone in overtime, Bailey fielded a pass from junior Shea Groom near the top of the Utah box. Bailey then blew by one defender and used a nifty move to beat a second to earn a one-on-one opportunity with Utah goalie Lindsey Luke. With no one in front of her but the keeper, Bailey fired into the upper left 90 from 10 yards out and found the back of the net for the game winner.

The goal was Bailey’s ninth of the season, but more importantly it kept the Aggies alive in their 19th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.

“It was all kind of a blur,” said Bailey. “The ball came into the box and bounced off one of their players and came to me. When I’m that close to the goal, I’m always looking to play to other people but I didn’t think anyone was open. I cut the ball and beat a couple players and took the shot.”

A&M now has a few days to rest up before making the probable trip to Chapel Hill, North Carolina for their second round match against No. 18 Texas Tech next weekend. If the Aggies were to defeat the Red Raiders, the road doesn’t get any easier as a match against defending champion North Carolina would be their likely reward in the Sweet Sixteen.

“We have a lot of respect for Tech,” concluded Guerrieri. “It has always been a good rivalry, so playing on a neutral field will be a really tough assignment. We have a very tough draw. To win the SEC regular season and win the SEC tournament, and then come up as a four-seed in the same group as the defending champions kind of makes you do a double take.

“On top of that, to play the third-place team in the PAC 12 in the first round and then to have to play one of the top teams in the Big 12 is quite a tall order.

“But it’s the NCAA Tournament, the name of the game is win and advance.”