Goals set high on pitch
By Austin Iske
The Texas A&M soccer team kicks off their anticipated 2017 season Aug. 18 against Pepperdine in San Diego.
“Our 2017 team is loaded with dynamic, talented, and highly motivated players,” Texas A&M head coach G Guerrieri told 12thMan.com. “Anyone who witnessed our recent spring exhibition games knows how exciting a level of soccer this team plays at and how special 2017 can be for Texas A&M.”
Good things seem to be in store for the Aggies, as they return nine of their 12 starters from last year, who are responsible for 24 of last season’s 27 goals. A&M advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament for the 19th year in a row.
But that is not all the good news for A&M. The Aggies also add Ally Watt back to the roster, who was redshirted last year to play with the U.S. U-20 Women’s National Team. Also included in the returnees are All-American Mikaela Harvey and All-SEC honoree Haley Pounds.
“We have a very exciting group of players in Aggieland for the 2017 season,” Guerrieri said. “Anyone who had an opportunity to see the team play this recent spring witnessed how much better the Aggies looked, and how well the six
against Florida on Sept. 21.
January fit in. Now we get Ally [Watt] back from USA U-20 National Team duty and add two more players with USA and Mexican youth national team experience, and it makes my smile that much bigger.”
Guerrieri added that although this season will provide a series of tough opponents for the A&M program, it will be beneficial for the team to demonstrate their ability to compete at a high level.
“This schedule presents an exciting challenge for the squad and gives them an opportunity to showcase themselves against some strong opponents,” Guerrieri said.
The Aggies will face eight non-SEC opponents that had a combined .566 win percentage last season, including three teams that made the NCAA Championship and six that finished in the top 80 RPI rankings.
“Our non-conference schedule features a lot of teams who have traditionally competed and won or are favored to win their own conference championships.” Guerrieri said. “Oklahoma State, DePaul, Butler, Pepperdine, San Diego, Kansas and Oregon are all NCAA Tournament caliber teams. And our home opener versus Oregon on the last Saturday in August, should be a great kickoff to our tough home schedule.”
SEC play starts Sept. 15 with a trip to take on Auburn on the road. A&M will play an even five home and away games during conference play and will have their SEC home-opener
against Florida on Sept. 21.
“This year, our SEC schedule is slightly different than in the past,” Guerrieri said. “It takes on an SEC baseball and football model, where we play everyone in the Western Division plus four teams from the Eastern Division.”
According to Guerrieri,conference officials made some changes to the schedule that will
allow for A&M to not only allow the team to miss less days of class, but have several home games more often.
“The SEC also changed the schedule to split weekends,” Guerrieri said. “Whenever we have a Thursday and Sunday match, one game is always home and one is away. It ensures we miss less school and we have a home match almost every week of the season. It’s a big bonus for our great Aggie soccer fans.”
The Aggies four other league home games include Arkansas on Sept. 29, Alabama Oct. 10, Ole Miss Oct. 13 and Vanderbilt Oct. 22. Texas A&M travels to Missouri ( Sept. 24), Georgia (Oct. 8), LSU (Oct. 19) and Mississippi State (Oct. 26).
“This will be a very challenging SEC schedule, but I love that we get to host our games against Alabama, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, Arkansas, and Florida,” Guerrieri said. “Those are all tough matches, so playing in front of the 12th Man at Ellis Field is very exciting.”