Texas A&M soccer coach G Guerrieri on the season so far

On preparing for the first SEC game...

“So far so good, as far as being on a good roll right now. I think that every game has been a good learning experience for our players. You can look at early on – playing against Florida State to start the season. I thought we were solid in that game. But I do think that defensively we’ve gotten better every single match. Now we’re on a three-game winning streak, three shutouts in a row, three different back lines that we’ve used because of some knocks to some different people, and even different formations in all of those games. I think the biggest thing we bring out of it is the confidence we have in Dani Rice right now as our goalkeeper.

"I think the leadership that, especially the captains, you look at Grace Wright and you look at McKayla Paulson, as far as what they’ve been able to do as far as setting standards and holding people accountable has been really good. And, now that Emily Bates is healthy and feeling really good again, our attack is significantly more dangerous.

On the freshmen players preparing for their first SEC game…

“To say that I have any idea what young women are thinking is to give me way too much credit.  I know they’re excited. I know they’ve gone into every game with a big smile on their face. Perhaps they’ve gone beyond their expectations of what they were going to get.

"I know Grace, last night on our radio show, mentioned that it’s been better than she could have ever expected, which is fun to hear. But her role with us is really important right now. And you look at hopefully getting Stephanie Malherbe back before too long. Grace has really held down the fort in that pivotal role as our holding midfielder.

"Then, Cienna has been a bit of a lightning bolt as far as coming in and, number one, exciting the crowd, but also has become a very dangerous role player for us in attack. I think she’s getting more confident with what we want of her to run that left side and not only to defend but also how we want to keep the ball a little bit better and attack a little bit better. She’s gotten better and better just in understanding that role.

"The big thing for this week is just getting ourselves healthy again and trying to work on the little things, especially technical issues with our young players so that we can take better control of the ball and that we can be a little more dangerous consistently as we go through a 90-minute game.”

“We want to get as many of them that are healthy enough to play. If they’re not healthy enough to play then we’ll hold back because next week we’ve got two games with Georgia and UC Riverside. I think it’s important to, number one, be able to stabilize our lineup and get it to where those players are feeling good.

"Last week was a challenging week. It was the first week of classes, which meant that we changed our training sessions instead of being early in the morning to now going to the middle of the afternoon, which brings up heat issues, brings up hydration issues, and brings up time management issues as they deal with their classes and their studies.

"This is a team that puts a lot of emphasis on their studies. We have almost a 3.3 grade-point average cumulative on this team. It’s not like people say ‘Oh, classes are here. I’ll go to a couple tests later in the year.’ Whatever stereotypes you think of athletes that’s not the way it is with this side. Last week was a really big adjustment period for our guys. I’m pleased that we got through that adjustment period with two wins. That will make this week just that much easier for them to know what’s coming next, especially the freshmen and sophomores.”

On looking ahead to LSU…

“Obviously we want to win the rest of our games. Period. Especially our SEC games. We’d like to get our trophy back and winning at home is key. We have some really big home games this year; LSU is coming here, Georgia, who we lost to, is coming here. We lost to South Carolina, they’re coming here. We have Missouri, who we didn’t beat last year, coming here.

"Those are all big games. All the SEC teams, you know they’re going to be super athletic. You know they’re going to be well-organized and very well coached. For us it’s a matter of we have to get ourselves as close to the top of our game as quickly as possible. If we stack ourselves up against anyone in the league, I like our chances.”