A&M and UC Irvine Play to 0-0 Draw
Texas A&M was unable to pull out the victory despite a 15-5 edge in shots and a 7-2 advantage in shots on goal
IRVINE,
California – No. 12 Texas A&M and UC Irvine played to a 0-0 draw in
an exhibition game at Anteater Stadium on Wednesday evening.
The
Aggies were unable to claim the victory despite registering substantial
advantages in shots (15-5), shots-on-goal (7-2) and corner kicks (10-3),
Despite
a scoreless tie at the intermission, the Aggies dictated the terms of
play in the first half with distinct margins in shots (12-5) and corner
kicks (5-1).
The Aggies rattled off five shots in
the first 11 minutes of the contest to turn the heat up early. It
appeared as though Kelley Monogue notched a goal in the sixth minute on
a header from 10 yards out on a perfect service from Karlie Mueller,
but she was deemed offside, to wipe the tally off the board. A&M
was whistled for offside infractions eight times in the game.
Shea
Groom missed wide right on a shot in the seventh minute and had another
shot in the ninth minute snuffed out by a keeper save. Monogue had a
shot saved in the ninth minute and Allie Bailey sent a shot three feet
high of the crossbar from the top of the penalty box in the 11th minute.
The
Aggies’ best opportunity to score came in the 29th minute when Groom
raced down the right side of the pitch and sent a cross past the UCI
netminder Jennifer Randazzo to an unmarked Annie Kunz four yards out,
but Kunz chipped the ball over the crossbar.
Texas
A&M missed scoring on a pair of set pieces near the end of the
first half. Kunz had an opportunity to score off a corner in the 28th
minute, but it was unable to get through the scrum in front of goal.
Monogue took a free kick from Meghan Streight and sent a shot in from
25 yards out in the 37th minute. Randazzo stopped Monogue’s shot, but
it trickled away to the left of goal and Rachel Lenz came in to clean
up the mess from four yards out but the shot hit the near post.
The
Anteaters nearly offered up a goal in the 44th minute. Groom sent a
cross in from the right corner of the penalty box, but it was
redirected by a UCI defender and sent goalward. The ball caromed off
the right post before being collected by the Anteater backline.
The
Aggies kept the blitz coming to start the second half, but were once
again unable to break the scoring seal. In the second minute of the
half, Kunz sent a through ball for Groom to chase, but Randazzo beat
her by a step to smother the attack. In the 57th minute Groom fired
wide right on an open shot from 15 yards out.
Jordan
Day and Renee McDermott combined on the shutout for the Aggies with Day
making one save in the first 64 minutes of action and McDermott
registering a stop in the final 26 minutes.
Randazzo went the distance in goal for the Anteaters, making seven saves in the shutout.
Kunz led the A&M attack with four shots, including three on goal. Groom and Monogue each tallied three shots.
Texas
A&M returns to action on Saturday when the Aggies host the Maroon
& White Game at Ellis Field. The intrasquad scrimmage is slated to
start at 7:30 pm.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach G Guerrieri
Overall
thoughts on the game: Obviously we play to win and 0-0 isn’t a win. But
I was pleased with parts of the game, especially the first portions of
both halves. We looked really good to start both halves, applying a lot
of pressure and gave their defense a lot of trouble. We missed an open
goal from three yards and we hit the posts a couple of times.
On
UC Irvine’s play: I thought their goalie, Jennifer (Randazzo) did a
great job for them. She’s played against us three times and has
performed very bravely, making some great saves, and she did that again
today.
On what the Aggies can take from the game:
We’ll get a lot of good video out of this. We’ll get a lot of good
things that we can show and teach, because we’ll have to be as good as
we can be as quick as possible because we have Duke coming in next
week. Being offside eight times sounds like a team that has only been
training for a week, which is kind of where we are right now.
On
the play of the Aggie defense: Our defense, starting with our two
captains – Meghan (Streight) and Rachel (Lenz), is nails. For us to
only give up five shots is good. I thought both of them were courageous
in a lot of things that they did and they did a lot of good things when
we were taking the ball forward. Leigh (Edwards) was solid today as was
Karlie (Mueller). Both of them give us such a good dimension because
they are such good all-around players and can flip the game from
defense to offense for us going forward with control of the ball.
On
the play of the freshmen who saw action, Ana Cruz and Liz Keester: For
the new freshmen who got out there, I thought it was great for Ana to
get out in Southern California and get some playing time in front of
her friends and family. She gave us some good minutes in both halves.
Liz (Keester) got herself in good scoring position on several occasions
and really thought she was going to finish one of those. I think we’re
going to see her finish a lot of those as the season progresses.
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