While working toward a season turnaround, the Texas A&M soccer squad succumbed to a strong offensive attack by the Rebels.
The first half of the match held a scoreless stalemate between the Aggies and the Rebels. A&M dominated the offensive, bringing in nine shots, three of which were on goal, against only three shots and none on goal for Ole Miss. Neither team was able to take advantage of their corner kicks. Sophomore midfielder and forward Barbara Olivieri led the charge with four shots for A&M, including two on goal. She was backed by freshman forward Maile Hayes, who had two shots and one on goal. However, by halftime neither Olivieri or Hayes managed to come away with a goal.
Early in the second half, Ole Miss managed a goal against junior goalkeeper Kenna Caldwell. The maroon and white fought hard to recover with five more shots, but were still unable to crack the Rebel’s defense and senior goalkeeper Ashley Orkus.
Consistency is key in order for the Aggies to pull out a win, head coach G Guerrieri said.
“I’m frustrated for our players because they played hard and created some good chances,” Guerrieri said. “We have to learn from our experiences, and we can learn from what our opponents have been able to do. We’ve got to be able to go out and play with the same type of enthusiasm as we did when we were chasing the game in the last 17 minutes. I thought that the fight of our players at that time was fantastic, so now we have to do that for a full 90 minutes.”
Despite many fouls, Ole Miss secured its win in the 85th minute with a goal by senior forward and midfielder Channing Foster — her second of the game — with an assist from sophomore forward Ramsey Davis. With the loss, A&M falls to 6-7-1 overall, 2-4-0 in the SEC, while Ole Miss pulls up 10-2-2 overall and 5-1-0 in the conference.
Even in the face of its loss, sophomore forward and defender Lauren Geczik said she feels confident about the team’s future.
“The belief isn’t gone,” Geczik said. “We know what we need to do. We need to win the rest of our games. It comes down to converting our chances and scoring goals. Everyone on the team knows that, so we are going to work on that in practice this week and then make it happen on Friday.”
The Aggies face the Alabama Crimson Tide on Friday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. at Ellis Field.
