No. 19 Texas A&M takes on the Alabama Crimson Tide Thursday night at Ellis Field.
The Aggies (8-2-1, 3-1 SEC) are on a four-game winning streak dating back to Sept. 15, and are coming of a 1-0 win against Utah Valley Monday evening.
“We’ve known how to put people away, within the exception of this past game, we’ve been scoring early and putting the other team in a position where they had to come out and chase us and that’s good position to be in during this streak,” head coach G. Guerreri said.
Alabama (8-4-1, 0-3-1 SEC) have lost their last two matches, both against ranked opponents No.9 Florida and No. 21 Tennessee.
The last time these two teams faced each other was last year in the SEC Tournament where A&M ended the Crimson Tide’s season 1-0 in double overtime.
“They’re a lot like us, they want to keep the ball on the ground and it’s almost like playing against ourselves. We won’t be giving any extra attention to other people we just have to make we’re ready to disrupt their rhythm while also creating our own,” Guerreri said.
Alabama is led by junior midfielder Emma Welch and junior forward Abbie Boswell. Welch leads the team in assists with six, and has two goals on the year. Boswell leads the team with three goals this season.
Alabama’s goalie is senior Kat Stratton who has only allowed 13 goals, and has 43 saves on the year.
A&M sophomore forward Ally Watt earned SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors on Monday, a week after sophomore midfielder Cienna Arrieta claimed the same honor a week before.
“I just have to remember in my head I know how to score, and I just got to stop freaking out in front of goal and be and more consistent for my own team and I definitely feel like I’m starting to break out of it,” Watt said.
The Aggies and Crimson Tide are set to kick off Thursday night at Ellis Field at 7:05 p.m. and will be streamed on SEC Network Plus.