Match #8: No. 24 Georgia 3, Texas A&M 0
Records: Texas A&M (3-2-3, 0-1-0), Georgia (5-2-2, 1-0-0)
Box Score
Friday was sorrowful, but hope is not lost.
Revenge was not in the cards for Texas A&M after last season's 1-0 SEC Tournament loss as the Aggies came up shy after their SEC home opener defeat to No. 24 Georgia at Ellis Field, 3-0.
At the start of the game, A&M was in a 4-3-3, while the Bulldogs were in a 5-4-1. With different shapes on display, the Maroon & White’s mentality was to hard press, which enacted their mixture of constant attack in an effort to create scoring opportunities, while also dropping back to mitigate the pacing of their opponents.
On the other hand, the Bulldogs attempted to space out across the pitch to start their attack as the Georgia defense played with high intensity.
It took all but seven minutes for the action to start as Bulldogs defender Cate Hardin took an attempt from inside the box that found the top right portion of the goal to put the visitors up 1-0.
The Aggies tried to follow up with a 36th-minute attempt from midfielder Trinity Buchanan, but they fell short as Georgia keeper Hannah Folliard made the first of her two saves of the evening.
At halftime, A&M had taken five total shots, while Georgia had doubled them up on shots.
"We've found opportunities and got shots on goal," Buchanan said. "I mean, we had 14 shots, two on goal. Obviously, I mean, we would like to get them all on goal."
The second half of the match consisted of the same mentality of hard press, which applied a constant attack. In the defense, A&M’s back line again dropped back.
Contrarily, the second half for the Bulldogs consisted of the same game plan as the Red and Black spaced out to try and seal the deal.
The visitors would not wait long to do so.
In the 50th minute, Georgia midfielder Kiera Staude found the net, but this was not the only goal scored by Georgia in the second half.
About four minutes later, forward Summer Denigan widened the lead from her bottom-centered shot to put the Bulldogs up 3-0.
Being down by three, A&M nearly got on the board with a shot that rang off the crossbar. Additionally, forward Leah Diaz also attempted to give a sense of hope to the Aggies, but her shot was stopped by Folliard.
In total, A&M attempted 20 shots with seven being on goal. However, they never found the net.
"You know, all in all, we created some good chances," head coach G Guerrieri said. "We've just got to be able to (score more goals)."
On the other end, Aggie keeper Sydney Fuller had four saves as the margin of defeat could have been much larger.
With a distressing loss in Friday’s SEC opener, A&M clearly has some work to do overall, especially in the attack.
"That will be something that we have to address before we go on the road to Auburn," Guerrieri said. "We'll get to recover a little bit, and then we get to go put our boots back and go back to work."
A&M travels to play Auburn on Thursday, Sept. 18. Kickoff is at 6:30 C.T.
