The Texas A&M soccer team will open the 2015 SEC Tournament with a shot at revenge against No. 12 Ole Miss in a quarterfinal match.
The Aggies (13-5-1, 6-4-1 SEC) squared off against Ole Miss on Oct. 25, and fell 4-3 at home after the Rebels scored two quick goals at the end of the second half.
The SEC tournament runs from Nov. 2-8. The seeding is correlated with how the team finished in the SEC standings. A&M is the 6-seed and Ole Miss is the 3-seed behind 1-seeded Florida and 2-seeded Missouri, who the Aggies drew with 1-1 last Thursday night in Columbia, Missouri.
A&M head coach G Guerrieri said the loss, which was the only loss at home since last year, is still fresh on the minds of the Aggie players.
“Ole Miss is a solid team and they proved that when they came into Ellis Field,” Guerreri said. “We’ve had to look at ourselves since that and try to clean up a few things that we made pretty big mistakes on but also understand that they have a lot of strengths that we have to counter.”
The two-time defending SEC Tournament champion Aggies are led by Karlie Mueller, who is the only senior in the starting lineup. Sophomores Mikaela Harvey and Haley Pounds help keep the offense clicking and have started every game this season. Harvey has scored six goals and registered two assists. Pounds leads the team in goals with 11 and has assisted four times this year.
The Rebels (13-4-2, 7-4-0 SEC) are led by forwards CeCe Kizer and Addie Forbus. The two players combined for three goals against A&M with Kizer scoring two and Forbus scoring the other. Kizer leads the team in scoring with 14 goals, which places her at 3rd overall in the SEC.
Guerrieri called the two forwards “huge threats” and said they play off each other’s energy.
“They’re the type of players that do really well off the ball,” Guerrieri said. “The goals that they score often times come off of quick counters or quick combinations with each other. We’ve got to be smart in the way that we mark and the way that we try and get numbers in our penalty area defensively.”
In last year’s tournament, the Aggies did not allow a single goal, helping them attain a streak of 312 minutes without allowing a goal in SEC Tournament play.
Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. and the match can be seen on the SEC Network. The winner will play in the first of two semifinals matches at 3:30 p.m. Friday against the winner of Auburn vs. South Carolina.
