After an 11-game win streak, the No. 5 Aggie soccer team fell at home 2-1 to the No. 18 Florida Gators on Sunday on the heels of a 5-0 win against Alabama on Friday. Sundays loss was the first SEC loss for the Aggies this season, pushing their record to 6-1-1.
Fridays win against Alabama was the Aggies 10th shutout of the season and the underclassmen on the team have played a major part in the teams success. The five leading scorers for the Aggies are sophomores, led by Annie Kunzs 17 points and Kelly Monogues 14, and highly touted goalkeeper Jordan Day is a sophomore as well. Texas A&M head soccer coach G Guerrieri said the sophomores are something special.
Last year at the end of the season, they were rated as the number one freshmen class in the country, Guerrieri said. They truly are special and the fact that they all came in at the same time makes them compliment each other so well. As a coach its a dream come true.
After Fridays 5-0 blowout, sophomore forward Shea Groom said the Aggies felt confident going into Sundays game against Florida.
This win gives us a great amount of confidence and were really excited about it, Groom said. It takes us back to last year when we were really an offensive powerhouse. Were feeling really good.
In Sundays game, it was Groom who scored in the middle of the first half, putting the Aggies in the lead 1-0. By halftime, the Aggies trailed 2-1 for the first time this season. The second half looked promising, as A&M was able to get nine shots off, but unable to put an equalizer in the back of the net.
Sundays loss to Florida pushed the Aggies to third place in the SEC behind Missouri and Florida. Day said she is hopeful, but they have got to get better.
If you play a team that’s like Florida, those are the games with the most on it, and we just weren’t on today, Day said. Now we’ve got to get other people to help us out a little bit in conference. We still have five games to go. We’ve got to get better in the next five games.
The Aggies plan to improve their record on the road Friday against Arkansas at 7 p.m.