COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M Aggies succumbed to an 87th minute goal as the Maroon and White dropped a 1-0 decision to the No. 5 South Carolina Gamecocks Thursday evening at Ellis Field.
After battling to a scoreless draw for the first 86:30, South Carolina (11-0-1, 5-0-0 SEC) broke through with Savannah McCaskill’s 11thgoal of the season. Playing from the defensive side of the center stripe, Lindsey Lane was able to boom a ball into the penalty box. McCaskill and Texas A&M’s McKayla Paulson were on a dead sprint to chase down the service. McCaskill was able to handle the offering and settle it at her feet before slipping a shot past charging Texas A&M goalkeeper Danielle Rice for the game-winner.
The Aggies were able to get an 88th minute shot-on-goal by Grace Wright and a corner kick with eight seconds remaining, but neither effort resulted in an equalizer.
The Maroon and White still found themselves playing with three of their regular starters sidelined with injuries, but were buoyed by the return of Stephanie Malherbe who had missed the last 10 matches. She played 65 minutes in her first action since exiting the season opener midway through the first half.
The match was a defensive struggle throughout, with just five shots-on-goal, all taken in the second half.
Texas A&M’s first shot-on-goal came in the 67th minute with Kendall Ritchie tattooing a free kick from 40 yards out that Mikayla Krzeczowski hunted down.
Rice made saves on game efforts by Daija Griffin in the 56th minute and Lane in the 61st minute.
Texas A&M (7-5-0, 2-3-0 SEC) returns to action next Thursday as the Aggies host the Missouri Tigers in a 6:30 p.m. match at Ellis Field.
TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach G Guerrieri
On Texas A&M’s performance…
“First off, South Carolina is a heck of a good team. That’s 11 wins in a row. That’s the most by anybody in the country. I thought that we protected the spaces in the middle of the park, we kept [Savannah] McCaskill off the ball for most of the game. Good for her that she found a way to bring it down and score. It was a creative way to bring it down and score. For us though, I was proud of the way our kids played. I thought that we played hard. Nobody gave less than 100 percent, especially the second half, we came out and had the better chances on the game.”
Junior midfielder Stephanie Malherbe
On moving forward as a team…
“Our team’s work ethic is awesome and we’re creating opportunities and moving the ball, but we just need to find that final pass. I think we’re just missing that last pass to create the dangerous shot to score. That’s how you win games is you score goals, and right now we’re not scoring goals.”
Senior defender Grace Wright
On the game…
“I think we can a lot of positives from this game. This South Carolina team is really good, they haven’t lost a game. Outside of the one long ball that they sent in and got behind the back line we were in the game the whole time. In the second half we really had the most chances and the best chances. The other thing that plays to our advantage is the teams in front of us in the standings are coming up in our schedule. If we can beat those teams, we can still get a bye heading to the SEC tournament and is huge.”