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No. 12 Aggies Edged Out by No. 7 Duke, 1-0
Playing
in front of an opening night crowd of 5,242 at Ellis Field, Texas
A&M relinquished the lone goal in the 52nd minute and was unable to
knot the contest despite outshooting the Blue Devils 5-1 in the final
12 minutes
COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS –
The No. 12 Texas A&M Aggies were edged out by the No. 7 Duke Blue
Devils, 1-0, in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 5,242 at Ellis Field
on Friday evening. The match marked the season opener for both squads.
Duke
notched the lone goal of the match in the 52nd minute of action.
Freshman Toni Payne weaved down to the penalty spot and offered an
outlet pass to senior Kim DeCesare on the right flank. DeCesare took
two dribbles and uncorked a shot from the right corner of the six-yard
area to the left of Aggie netminder Jordan Day and into the side
netting for the 1-0 lead.
The Blue Devils’ goal gave Duke
a 12-5 edge in shots through 52 minutes. Texas A&M was able to
outshoot Duke 7-5 down the stretch, including 5-1 in the final 12
minutes but the Aggies were unable to find the back of the net for the
equalizer.
A&M had three prime opportunities to score
in the final four minutes, but misfired. With just less four minutes
left in the contest junior Shea Groom sent a cross in from the left to
an unmarked Liz Keester towards the right post, but the offering missed
finding the freshman’s boot by a yard. Groom had a shot blocked from
eight yards out with 3:00 showing on the clock. With 1:15 remaining,
junior Kelley Monogue sent a corner kick in from the left side and
found the head of Annie Kunz, but the junior’s header went two feet
high of the left upper ninety.
Day, the Aggie junior
goaltender, made five saves in a valiant effort in goal for A&M. In
the 36th minute she staved off a pair of shots at point-blank range by
DeCesare to keep the contest scoreless going into the intermission.
Sophomore Ali Kershner went the distance in goal for Duke making three saves in the shutout.
Groom registered a team-high four shots, including two on goal. Keester added a pair of shots.
DeCesare
led all players with six shots, including fur on goal. Senior Kaitlyn
Kerr took four shots and junior Kelly Cobb and senior Laura Weinberg
added three apiece.
In addition to the advantage in shots, Duke held the margins in shots-on-goal (6-3), but corner kicks were even at 5-5.
Texas A&M returns to action on Sunday when the Aggies host the UTSA Roadrunners in a 7 pm match at Ellis Field.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Texas A&M Head Coach G Guerrieri
Opening
Statement: “I thought it was a really well played game. My hat’s off to
Duke. They played a heck of a goal. Their goal came on a couple
defensive errors on our part that allowed her to get the ball in the
back of the net. I thought Jordan (Day) had a really good night. The
game came down to who finished the chances that they had. They finished
theirs. We didn’t finish ours. Three shots-on-goal was a little
disappointing for us. We were able to put them in some tough situations
from the opening kick, we just squandered them. It’s a tough loss
because you hate to lose to a team that you respect like Duke, but it’s
something we can learn from. We can look at ourselves and learn from
it. We can look at them and learn from it.”
On easing off the
pressure from the start of the game: “I think we let off of them. It’s
a learning experience based on how we’re going to play. This team we
played tonight was a Final Four caliber team. If you don’t stay on the
edge of your game and keep it moving, they can punish you for it. Duke
did a good job. You can’t take anything away from them. It wasn’t like
we lost this game. They found a way to win it. We have to learn from it
and move on.”
Senior Defender Rachel Lenz
On the positives of
the game: “There are definitely some positive things that we can learn
from this game and some things we can learn from. We’re way ahead of
where we were last year.”
On transitioning from offense to
defense as a team: “It helps the defense work so well when we start at
the top of the field. Our forwards do a great job. It really fires us
up when they’re winning tackles 30 yards from the goal. It’s great for
them to win it up high.
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