In the closing career home game at Ellis Field for seniors Mikaela Harvey, Haley Pounds, Stephanie Malherbe and McKayla Paulson, the No. 14 Aggie women’s soccer team defeated Vanderbilt, outscoring the Commodores 2-1 Sunday night.
With this victory, the Aggies improve to 13-2-1 on the season, while Vanderbilt falls to 10-6-1. This marks Texas A&M’s ninth consecutive win heading into the final conference game of the year against Mississippi State on Thursday in Starkville, Mississippi.
A&M head coach G. Guerrieri said following the game that he was glad the team was able to get the win, giving the seniors a good memory of their last game at home.
“I think being Senior Day was that much more special,” Guerrieri told 12thman.com. “They were going to go out and do it for [Mikaela Harvey] and [McKayla Paulson] and [Stephanie Malherbe] and [Haley Pounds]. The team was going to do whatever it took to get them the win today on their Senior Day.”
All three Aggie goals were made in the second half of the game. Despite this, the team out shot the Commodores 10-0 in the first half.
After not being able to get a shot off in the first 45 minutes, Vanderbilt opened the scoring with a goal in the 47th minute of the game when Commodores senior Simone Charley scored off a corner kick. Shortly after, in the 55th minute, the Aggies equalized on sophomore midfielder Grace Piper’s laser from outside of the box.
Harvey said freshman Addie McCain and Piper’s goals came at a good time during the match and she was happy they were able to score.
“Piper has a rocket of a shot,” Harvey told 12thman.com. “She hit it perfectly into the upper 90 and I was just happy for her to get another one and Addie played amazing today and they really helped me out in the midfield.”
The Aggies weren’t done scoring, as they waited just four minutes to score the winning goal in the 59th minute with McCain’s shot. Both Vanderbilt and A&M would see more chances the rest of the second half, but the 2-1 score held.
A&M finished with 19 shots, seven on goal, eight corners and three saves, while Vanderbilt finished with seven shots, four on goal, one corner and five saves.
Malherbe said the timing of the goals gave the team morale and helped them finish out the game knowing they were going to come out victorious.
“To get that goal right away and then to get that second goal pretty quickly after I think sealed the deal,” Malherbe told 12thman.com. “I think all of us were pretty confident, none of us really got our heads down because we knew that we deserved to win this game.”
No. 14 Texas A&M will be back in action on Thursday as they travel to Starkville, Mississippi to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the final game of the regular season before kicking off the SEC Tournament next week. Kickoff in Starkville is slated for 7 p.m.