Soccer: Aggies tripped up by Volunteers, 1-0

Game Recap

College Station - It's not often that a team who seems to outplay the other loses any sort of contest, however, that was the case on Friday night at Ellis Field.

In front of an announced crowd of 2,481, the ninth-ranked Texas A&M Soccer team fell to the Tennessee Lady Vols by a score of 1-0, despite dominating the visiting team in nearly every statistical category. With the loss, the Aggies fall to 14-3-1 overall and 8-2-1 in the SEC, while the Volunteers move to 12-4-2 on the year and 7-3-1 in conference play.

After 10 minutes of scoreless action, Tennessee forward Hannah Wilkinson took possession of the ball and streaked pass the A&M defensive line and into the Aggies' box. Wilkinson, a member of both the 2012 New Zealand Olympic team and the 2011 New Zealand World Cup team, proceeded to take a shot from the right side of the A&M box which found it's way under Jordan Day to put the Maroon and White at a 1-0 disadvantage.

"It was a well-played ball and it went right under our goalkeeper," said A&M Head Coach G Guerrieri. "Jordan's had a great season. I know she's probably disappointed on the one she missed. She usually makes a save on it. That's just a fact on how great she's played this season. You don't expect that kind of stuff to happen."

One of the Aggies' best chances to tie the game came with approximately 15 minutes left in the first half when midfielder Jayne Eadie took a corner kick from the left flag which found it's way to the head of Meghan Streight. Streight took the header as well as she could with the Tennessee defense against her, but the ball ended up going just north of the crossbar and out of bounds for a Volunteer corner kick.

Coming out of the gates in the second half, A&M seemed to be playing the aggressor and it felt that it was only going to be a matter of time until the ball found the back of the net.

The Aggies' best attempt of tying the game in the second half came with about 21 minutes remaining when speedster Bianca Brinson found herself with a little room just outside the Tennessee box. Brinson fired a laser in the direction of the goal which bounced off the hands of Volunteer goalie Julie Eckel before being scooped up to preserve the visiting team's lead.

In the final 8:23 of the game, A&M rallied for one last push at a goal. The Aggies' were able to fire off three shots in the final minutes of the game (and had looks at many more), including a last-second (literally) shot from Jayne Eadie that went just wide of the left post.

"It was just one of those games, unfortunately," said Guerrieri. "Now we have to turn our focus into getting ready for another tough one on Sunday."

Next up, A&M takes on the Georgia Bulldogs (7-9-2, 3-6-2) at Ellis Field on Sunday afternoon.

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Post-game notes

* The Aggies out-shot the Volunteers by a total of 23-9

* A&M registered a total of 10 corner kicks to Tennessee's six.

* Anyone with a ticket stub from Saturday's football game vs. LSU can purchase a $3 general admission ticket.

* Both Florida and Missouri lost on Friday night, leaving A&M two points behind the Gators for first in the SEC and one point ahead of the Tigers for second.