After two weeks on the road, the No. 12 Texas A&M soccer team will return home to face non-conference opponent the University of Houston and Big 12 rival Baylor this weekend at the Aggie Soccer Complex.
The Aggies will be looking for redemption against the unranked Bears on Sunday after last season’s upset, 2-1 in Waco, against then-No. 9 A&M.
The Bears are 4-2 in the all-time series with a four-game winning streak. In three of those games unranked Baylor upset a ranked A&M team. Baylor and Nebraska are the only Big 12 teams with a winning record against the Aggies.
“They have absolutely had our number and have risen to the challenge of playing us,” said head soccer coach G. Guerrieri. “They will be up for us again.”
The Bears have been one of the Big 12’s best teams and last season finished 10-6-3, 6-2-2 in the Big 12. Soccer Buzz ranked Baylor No. 3 in the central region behind Nebraska and A&M in its final poll last season.
This season, the Bears are 4-4 after starting Big 12 play 0-2. The Bears had the tough task of opening their Big 12 schedule against No. 5 Nebraska and fell 4-0 to the Cornhuskers. In their second Big 12 game, the Bears fell 2-1 in overtime to Iowa State. It was the first time Baylor had lost to the Cyclones.
While freshman forward Linsey Johnson has been outstanding for the Aggies, Baylor has its own freshman phenomenon in forward April Robertson. Robertson is leading the Bears with five goals, including two game winners, but she did not score a goal in either of the Bear’s Big 12 games.
Before the showdown with Baylor, the Aggies first face the Houston Cougars tonight.
The Cougars are 2-5-1 and 1-3 in Conference USA, but Guerrieri said his team can not overlook them.
“We don’t look at it that way,” Guerrieri said. “If you look at it that way, Colorado wasn’t a very good team. It will be a huge game for them and they will play very hard and physical.”
Colorado upset the Aggies by tying them 2-2 in Boulder last Sunday. They came into the game with a record of 1-5.
A&M has only faced Houston once before beating the Cougars 7-0 in 1999.
The Aggies had tough road trips during the last two weeks, facing No. 4 Portland and No. 14 Washington at the Husky ike Invitational and then opening Big 12 play at Texas Tech and Colorado. However, the Aggies managed to escape with a 2-1-1 record in those games, 4-2-1 overall.
Guerrieri said that he is excited to play some games in College Station.
“We’re hoping that folks will stick around from the Baylor (football) game,” Guerrieri said. “We’re ranked as high as No. 10 and we have done all of this on the road. We are hoping to unveil this team at home.”
The Aggie’s first game was Sept. 17 at the Aggie Soccer Complex against Tulane. Rain forced home games with Samford and No. 1 North Carolina to be canceled, and games against No. 7 Stanford and No. 6 California were moved to San Marcos. The home game against New Mexico was canceled after the recent terrorist attacks.
Tonight’s game against Houston will start at 7 p.m. at the Aggie Soccer Complex. The Baylor game will start at the same time on Sunday.