Though Texas A&M soccer dominated for almost the entirety of its Sunday, Sept. 12 matchup against Oklahoma State University, a late goal by the Cowgirls was enough to send both teams home with a tie.
For the second straight matchup between A&M and Oklahoma State, the two squads ended regulation play tied, then battled through two complete overtime periods. Unlike last time, which came in the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight earlier this year, there was no penalty kick shootout to decide a winner. With the draw, A&M’s four-game winning streak was broken.
Though the maroon and white has still not lost a game since Aug. 22, A&M head coach G Guerrieri said he is not happy with the end result of Sunday’s matchup.
“The tie feels a little bit like a loss because we played well enough to win this thing,” Guerrieri said.
Regardless, some Aggies still found success. After tying for A&M’s season high of three with a goal against the Southern Lady Cougars on Wednesday, Sept. 8, freshman forward Maile Hayes took the squad’s lead outright with a score against Oklahoma State. The Aggies had not yet recorded a shot on goal in Stillwater when the Spring native took the long shot of 22 yards, well outside the box. Oklahoma State freshman goalkeeper Evie Vitali was caught off guard by the unexpected attempt in the 13th minute, and her dive to the bottom-right corner of the net was not in time to stop Hayes’s fourth goal of the season, allowing A&M to take a 1-0 lead.
The first half finished without any more offensive success for either team.
Much of this came as a result of the defense employed by junior goalkeeper Kenna Caldwell, acting as a wall within the frame and saving any shots on goal presented by Oklahoma State in the first half.
Though the Cowgirls applied more pressure after the break, largely thanks to a free kick and multiple corner kicks, the Aggies managed to hold the home team scoreless for another 41 minutes. This changed in the 87th minute when Oklahoma State senior defender Hannah Webb used a deflected header attempt to chip in her team’s first goal and knot the score at one.
Neither team managed to find the back of the net in the remaining seconds, sending the game into overtime. Both teams battled hard through both extra periods, forcing Caldwell and Vitali to make saves in the frame, but no shots connected before time ran out.
Guerrieri said the game should not have gone into extra time in the first place. Instead, the Aggies should have driven home with another victory, he said.
“We had it won had we not given up a goal late,” Guerrieri said. “You have to play until there are zeros on the clock. That’s one of the lessons we learned.”
Following their matchup, the Aggies’ new record was set at 4-2-1; the Cowgirls moved to 3-3-1.
A&M next returns to action Friday, Sept. 17 when the team travels to Lexington, Ky. to kick off its Southeastern Conference campaign against the Kentucky Wildcats. Kick-off is set for 6 p.m. at the Bell Soccer Complex, and the game will be livestreamed on the SEC Network+ and the 12th Man Mobile app.
In the team’s quest to reclaim last year’s Southeastern Conference Regular Season Championship title, Guerrieri said the maroon and white will soon be forced to up its game for the remainder of the season, especially against SEC opponents.
“Kentucky has a lot of fire power we’ll have to deal with,” Guerrieri said. “[Friday] is going to be really tough.”