Guerrieri, Aggies moving forward as key players begin to return to action

Key notes from G Guerrieri interview

• Thursday night was a great game. It was another top-ten team coming into Ellis Field, and it was a battle the entire way. We were missing five plays. Kenna Caldwell was great in goal. Our defense with Karlina Sample and Katie Smith was fantastic, as usual. It was disappointing to lose to Arkansas on the golden goal in overtime.
   
• We have a lot of great players on this team, but we're having to make adjustments on the fly. We have another opportunity against Tennessee, another top-15 team in the nation, and we need to make a statement. That match will be Friday night.
   
• As we were getting rolling, we lost Andersen Williams and Laney Carroll. Early in the season, we lost Barbara Olivieri. Recently, we lost Maile Hayes. she hasn't played in the last three games. We've now lost our leading assist player in Mia Pante. We've lost a lot of scoring and a couple of our quarterbacks. We've had to move some of our defensive players up to the attack. For us, it's a matter of polishing them up and getting them to understand their experiences from their first three SEC games. We have to find ways to play to our strengths.
   
• We have some great young players in Natalie Abel, Makhiya McDonald and Carissa Boeckmann. They have some deer-in-the-headlights looks going on at times, so we need to slow the world down a little be to get them comfortable.
   
• College is an opportunity for you to grow so much, and you're seeing it with our players right now. It's part of why I chose to be a college coach.
   
• Hopefully, we can see some players come back in a week to 10 days, but we will play three games in that span. Our feet are on the ground, and we're moving forward. We have to have young players step up against good opponents in the SEC. We're up for the task and ready to roll.