The No. 16 Texas A&M Aggies faced off against the CSUN Matadors Friday evening in A&M’s first home game of the season. The Aggies defeated the Matadors 4-0 in impressive fashion, scoring quick and widening the lead early on, while also defensively shutting out CSUN.
A&M’s quick start helped set the tone for the game, and helped to give the Aggies some separation early on. At the 10:23 mark of the first period, sophomore defensive midfielder Macie Kolb put A&M on the board first, off of an assist by senior forward Ally Watt and senior midfielder Gracie Piper.
Moments later, at the 11:19 mark, junior forward Taylor Ziemer scored a solo goal for the Aggies to put the team ahead by two. Ziemer would go on to score her second goal at the 74:17 mark of the second period. Junior defensive midfielder Jimena Lopez also scored a goal at the 22:15 mark.
Ziemer, who recorded her first goals as an Aggie, said she felt good about tonight’s offense after a lackluster start to the season.
“I think it was big-time for us to score four goals,” Ziemer said.” We haven’t been able to score as we would like, and against Pepperdine we had a lot of chances, and just couldn’t put them away. The two goals I scored [tonight] were team goals.”
A&M head coach G Guerrieri said he was also impressed with his team’s improvement offensively.
“We weren’t ourselves completely out in California, even though we got good results, tonight was a little more indicative of how we can play,” said Guerrieri.
The key to the Aggies’ offensive success was their overwhelming shot attempts. The Aggies had 21 attempts to just five by the Matadors. This not only helped A&M score, but also was a large factor in the Aggies defensive effort as the team kept pressure off of freshman goalkeeper Shantel Hutton, who played the duration of the match.
Piper, who took five shots, said goals will result from those shot attempts, and can help the team later in the season.
“I got a little greedy in the second half, and maybe took a couple shots I shouldn’t have, but those shots will turn into goals later in the season, so it’s good to get those off,” Piper said.
A&M will return to action at home against Abilene Christian Sunday, at 6:00 p.m. at Ellis Field.