Following rebound win, G Guerrieri sizes up A&M's next SEC swing

Texas A&M Soccer Coach G Guerrieri

On the 4-0 win over Mississippi State…

"Well, good. I thought the whole week was really good. You know, we’ve been talking about how young this team is, and sometimes you learn a lot from bad experiences, and the experience from the previous weekend was going on the road and losing two games 2-1. Two games that we were in both of them and could’ve, should’ve on some of them.

"So, I think the players did a great job of adjusting themselves, picking themselves up, dusting themselves off and amongst themselves kind of talking about the type of commitment, the type of work that was going to need to be done in practice. Then, the type of commitment and effort that was going to have to happen in the game.

"So, it’s one thing to talk about it, it’s another thing to go out and do it and man, I thought they did great for the Friday night game against a team that had been doing really well and was unbeaten in their last three SEC games. It was really just total domination all the way around. Dominated on the boards as far as statistics go, but also dominated in time of possession and in dangerous situations. I thought our defense was rock solid against some tough matchups and it sets us up for now, what is going to be a difficult week, but I think a little bit more a hop to our step."
 

On Friday’s senior night…

"Yeah I didn’t know that the Pesika’s were coming in and so that was a nice surprise and really neat for Karlie, and the seniors were outstanding in the game. You know, all three of them started. Kristi does a great job as far as everything on and off the field. Karlie and Janae were both involved in goals, Janae getting the last goal that was great and now coming off of that performance by our seniors, Janae is the SEC Offensive Player of the week.

"So, a really good weekend and again it just kind of shows what hard work does. Hard work and doing things the right way and sticking with the game plan is what this senior class has been doing since they got here and I think they’re giving a good lesson to the rest of the players."
 

On Mia Hummel starting at goalkeeper…

"Well, we opened the goalkeeper position up for competition last week and let the players know before we left the field at Georgia that the position was open and really the tree of them responded really, really well. You know, Dani Rice hasn’t been in yet, but you know she was outstanding last week. All three of them were outstanding last week and in the end we chose to go with Mia and she kind of backed up our decision. She made some good saves, she was really good at stopping the things that Mississippi State does well, but the position is open again.

"It is still open. I am confident that all three of them will rise to the occasion again this week, because we’ll play Alabama at home on Friday and then we go to Auburn who's as high as No. 5 in the country. So, it’s a challenging week. Our goalkeepers are going to be under a little bit of pressure and we just need to make sure that we do the things that we can do and that we don’t give away any easy opportunities to our opponents."
 

On this weekend’s matchups against Alabama and Auburn…

"Well, they’re both big time opponents, because they are both SEC schools. The neat thing for us is we’re the only event on campus this Friday and really this whole weekend — volleyball is out of town and football is off. So, it’s just soccer on Friday night. So, I am hoping that the 12th Man will come out and really support the team.

"We need it. We only have three home games left and this is a game that we need all three points. A win for this game at home puts us in a good position going into the game on Sunday and Alabama has always been a good, skillful team. They have a new coach who is emphasizing those things again with them that they keep the ball, that they try to be opportunistic when they get their chances and that they try to play the right way.

"The game on Sunday against Auburn, I think they are 11-1 right now, so they are having an unbelievable season. They are very dangerous on restarts, which is something that we’ve given up goals on in the past. So, we’ve got to be better on that, but they are very athletic all over the park. It’ll be a real challenge in that one for sure."
 

On making a formation change in the defeat of Mississippi State…

"Well, we always will play to the strength of the team and how we can play. I thought that the game plan for Friday was really, really strong. You know, we’ll adjust to every opponent, but mostly it’s about adjusting to what we have available and how we can play."