The third-seeded Texas A&M Aggies dropped their semifinal match, 3-1, to the seventh-seeded Vanderbilt Commodores Thursday night in the SEC Tournament. The tournament loss against the Commodores marks the Aggies’ first loss since dropping a 2-1 decision at Arkansas on October 4 and snaps their seven game winning streak.
“Well that’s a tough way for us to wrap up a really good fall semester,” head coach G Guerrieri’s said after the match. “Winning the SEC regular-season title was a great accomplishment and there are several good lessons for our young team to learn from tonight before we begin an unprecedented spring NCAA campaign.”
The Aggies, who fell to 8-2, came into Thursday night looking for a win in order to earn a rematch against the Razorbacks in the SEC Championship. However, the Aggies’ offense was unable to get open shots and was shut down for most of the night.
On the other hand, Vanderbilt’s cinderella run in the SEC Tournament continues as their offense remains scorching hot. Not known for having a high-powered scoring offense, the Commodores have now scored 11 goals in their three games in the tournament.
The Aggie offense was able to maintain possession early on but could not translate that into decent shot opportunities. Vanderbilt, however, made the most out of their minimal opportunities and broke the ice halfway through the first half. Star senior Haley Hopkins made a great move around Karlina Sample and struck a beautiful ball out of reach of goalkeeper Kenna Caldwell.
With the momentum on Vanderbilt’s side, Guerrieri’s squad answered back ten minutes later to tie the game at 1-1. In the 34th minute, freshman Kate Colvin found herself open outside the box and scored on a beautiful shot that went just over Sarah Fuller’s reach. The score remained tied heading into intermission.
Scoring chances were hard to come by all night, especially in the second half. Neither team found their groove offensively to earn quality shots. However, Vanderbilt didn’t need quality shots to score two goals late in the game.
After sloppy soccer by both teams, Vanderbilt broke the tie in the 77th minute. Hopkins again found herself in perfect position and scored on a header from a cross by Leila Azari.
Texas A&M entered desperation mode and needed a goal in 13 minutes to keep hope alive for a trip to the championship game, but the dagger came less than five minutes later from the underdog Commodores.
In the 81st minute, a corner kick from Vanderbilt resulted in mayhem inside the box with a loose ball. Unable to fully clear, Reagan Kelly took advantage and squeaked a shot by multiple defenders to generate an insurance goal for Vandy.
With A&M’s fall season concluded, the Aggies will turn their attention to the 2021 spring season, scheduled to begin in February.
