Texas A&M soccer coach G Guerrieri on SEC wins, preparing for Arkansas

On the victories over Florida and Missouri…

“Well, I think emotionally we’re – it’s finally showing who we are and the types of things we can do. I think especially heightened by the fact that on Sunday when we go down a player and we’re playing 10 vs. 11 on a hot day – it was in the 90’s up in Missouri – and they had just scored and the momentum had kinda gone in their favor. For our players to rally around each other and not just protect the lead but build a lead and score three goals against Missouri while we’re down a player really shows where this team is right now. The confidence they have in each other, the belief they have in each other, the love for each other that they have, and that was a great positive step moving forward.

"I think it only builds on the confidence they had beating Florida. Beating Florida and coming out and flat out playing Florida, which is a heck of a team, and they are a very talented team. But that gave us some confidence and now this one has given us more confidence, and we’re excited to come home and be here for the next three games. Knowing that Arkansas is always a difficult game, it’s always a one goal game ever since we’ve gone into the league. At least we’re going into it knowing we can score goals, knowing we can stop anybody and add up the belief the players have in each other is pretty special.”

On Cienna Arieta being named SEC player of the week…

“Obviously, we’re excited for her. I think she has been one of our most improved players this year. Last year as a freshmen coming in from El Paso she was kinda saucer-eyed, as far as 'Oh my gosh, there’s a lot of things happening at one time,' so she had high highs and low lows, but this year she has worked very hard, number one. The free kicked she scored against Missouri is something she works on every single day, so just stepping up to it and doing something that she has done a thousand times already. That’s really the way she’s gone through whole season. She’s really been herself really well. She’s added an athletic component to our midfield, so for her to score two goals is kind of the cherry on top. For her to get the accolades from the SEC is great. It’s always cool to see our players playing with confidence and this can do nothing but add confidence to Cienna.”

On the team's confidence going into the Arkansas match…

“Confidence is something that is kind of a given in this case. There won’t be any overconfidence; I can tell you that. We’ll show them how good Arkansas is and how dangerous Arkansas can be, but they’re feeling pretty good about themselves and we feel good about them. We feel that being able to go off the last result, you know. We won’t have Briana Alston in this game, which will be a big obstacle for us because she brings such an athletic component to the team, but she’ll be ready for the game on Monday night when we play Utah Valley. But as much as anything, it’s a football weekend, so the football starts at Ellis Field at 7’clock on Friday and builds through it being a night game for the football team on Saturday over at Kyle, (which) is great. And we want the players to just understand that this is a good weekend for them to go through.

"Honestly the biggest worries I have this year outside of Arkansas being very tough is that it’s a very tough academic week for our players, and academics is a big part of the life of an A&M soccer player. We graduate all of our players because all of our girls care about their grades, and this is coming into a very heavy testing period this week and next week, so a lot of how the players take care of themselves – this will be a lot of things. We will be lecturing them over this week and reminding them that they’ve got to continue to take care of themselves, continue to get enough sleep, continue to do all those things because it’s going to bring a world of hurt if we’re not physically able to play against them at 100 percent on Friday night.”