COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M Aggies open up their third SEC Tournament on Wednesday when they play the battle-tested Georgia Bulldogs in a 5 pm CT contest at the Orange Beach Sportsplex in Alabama.
The Aggies are looking to become the first SEC team to do the double in back-to-back seasons since Florida won the regular-season and tournament crowns from 1996-2001.
Texas A&M open the tournament in the quarterfinal round with a match against Georgia who advanced on PKs after playing Arkansas to a 1-1 draw through two double overtime periods in the first round on Monday. The Aggies bested Georgia in the regular-season finale, 2-1, to clinch their second consecutive SEC regular-season title.
The Maroon and White are 4-1 all-time in the SEC Tournament, reaching the semifinal round in their first season and winning the championship in 2013.
The Aggies are looking for their seventh conference tournament title. In addition to winning their first-ever SEC Tournament crown last season, A&M won Big 12 Championship crowns in 1997, 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2011.
WINNING
The Aggies are guaranteed they will finish the season with a winning record. A&M has finished with a winning record in all of its previous 21 seasons. The closest the Aggies have finished to the .500 mark is the 14-8 (.636) record they posted in 1998.
CONFERENCE WINNING
The Aggies are guaranteed they will finish the conference slate with a winning record. A&M has finished with a winning record in league play in all 18 of the previous years it was aligned with a conference. The closest the Aggies have finished to the .500 mark in league play is the 5-3-2 (.600) record they posted in Big 12 play in 2003. In 18 previous seasons of league action, A&M has finished first or second in the conference standings on 16 occasions with the other finishes coming in 1998 (3rd Big 12 – 7-2) and 2003 (5th Big 12 – 5-3-2).
FOLLOW THE ACTION
Wednesday’s match will be televised on the SEC Network. The match will have video streaming available to SEC Network subscribers on the WatchESPN app and ESPN3.com. Live stats for the match will be on SECSports.go.com. The match airs on RadioAggieland and 12thMan.com and locally on Sports Radio 1150 The Zone.
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LAST TIME OUT – GEORGIA
The Aggies secured their second consecutive SEC regular-season title with a 2-1 win over the Georgia Bulldogs. Allie Bailey got the Aggies on the scoreboard in the 18th minute as the Maroon and White took advantage of a free kick opportunity. Karlie Mueller put the ball in play from 30 yards out on the right. Shea Groom got her head on the offering, but sent it outside the six-yard box on the left. The carom ended up being fortuitous as it found Janae Cousineau unmarked and the junior sent the ball back into the six-yard box with her head, finding Bailey for a backheel and the 1-0 lead. In the 53rd minute, Groom scored an insurance goal when Kelley Monogue slipped a pass through two defenders, finding Groom just right of the penalty kick spot. Groom made easy work of the effort. A&M appeared headed to the shutout, before Georgia took advantage of a defensive laps and strung together a series of passes leading to a Laura Eddy goal from eight yards out in the 68th minute.
DO-OVER
This marks the first time the Aggies have ever played the same squad in back-to-back matches. The closest A&M has come is playing the same team twice in a three-match span. In 1995, the Aggies played SMU twice in a three-match span, losing 4-2 in overtime at the SWC Tournament and falling, 2-1, in the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA Championship. In 1998, A&M lost to Nebraska twice in a three-game span, falling 3-2 in triple overtime at the Big 12 Championship and 7-0 in the NCAA Championship second round. In 2007, the Maroon and White dropped two matches to Texas in a three-match span against Texas, losing 2-1 at the Big 12 Tournament and 3-2 at the NCAA Championship. In 2009, the Aggies thumped Texas twice in a three-match span, 4-0, in the regular-season finale and 5-1 at the Big 12 Championship quarterfinal.
TOURNAMENT INTENSITY
All four of Texas A&M’s SEC Tournament wins to date have been by one goal and the Aggies’ highest goal output has been two goals on two separate occasions – the 2013 semifinal against South Carolina (2-1) and the 2013 championship match against Florida (2-1). Texas A&M won the 2013 SEC Tournament with just five goals on the back of three one-goal decisions.
AGGIES EXTEND 15-WIN SEASON STRETCH TO 11 YEARS
With their win in the regular-season finale against Georgia, the Aggies posted their 11th consecutive 15-win season dating back to 2004. In their first 22 seasons, the only two years the Aggies have not reached the 15-win plateau are 1998 (14-8) and 2003 (13-6-3). The school record for victories stands at 20, set in 2002 with a 20-5-1 mark.
MONOGUE CLIMBING THE CAREER POINTS LIST
Kelley Monogue currently ranks fifth on the Aggies’ career points list with 114. Against LSU, Monogue scored a goal to pass Kristen Strutz (104 – 2000-03) for fifth place on the list. She has a bit of work to do to catch Nicky Thrasher (140 – 1997-2001) for fourth place on the list. Ashlee Pistorius (2004-07) owns the school record with 194 points followed by Bryn Blalack (1994-197) with 192. During her healthiest campaign, Monogue logged 47 points as a freshman in 2011. Recovering from a knee injury in 2012, the McKinney, Texas native logged 20 points. Last season, she registered 17 points as she still felt the effects of the earlier ailment.
MONOGUE CLIMBING THE CAREER GOALS LIST
With her goal against Illinois State, Kelley Monogue became the fifth player in school history to log 40 career goals. She is now up to 46 goals at Texas A&M. The McKinney native trails only Ashlee Pistorius (81 – 2004-07), Bryn Blalack (79 – 1994-97), Nicky Thrasher (57 – 1997-2001) and Kristen Koop (55 – 1993-96). Monogue was A&M’s leading goal scorer as a freshman with 19 tallies in 2011. She added 10 in 2012 and six in 2013.
GROOM AND KUNZ CLIMBING THE CAREER GOALS LIST
Shea Groom enters the SEC Tournament with 38 career goals, which ranks seventh on A&M’s career list. Annie Kunz enters play with 37 career goals apiece, tied with Heather Ragsdale for eighth place on A&M’s all-time list. The next target on the list for the duo is Melissa Garey (2004-07) in sixth place with 39 goals. Kunz tallied 14 goals as a freshman and 13 as a sophomore. Hampered by an injury that held her out of four games and limited her to a reserve role most of the 2013 campaign, Kunz managed just five goals in 2013. Groom was limited by injury in her freshman campaign, with six goals in just 10 matches and added five as a sophomore, but she’s come on strong the last two seasons with 14 goals in 2013 and eight this year.
SERIES VS. GEORGIA
The Aggies are 3-0-0 all-time against the Bulldogs with both matches coming since A&M joined the SEC in 2012.
All three wins were narrow for the Aggies, winning a home match, in overtime, 1-0, in 2012, posting a 2-1 win in Athens last season and winning a 2-1 decision in College Station last Thursday to clinch the SEC regular-season title. Allie Bailey and Shea Groom notched the goals in last Thursday’s win. Last year, Bailey and Liz Keester took turn assisting the others scoring a goal with Keester scoring in the sixth minute and Bailey notching a goal in the 64th minute.
SCOUTING GEORGIA
Georgia enters Wednesday’s match with a 10-6-2 overall mark and the Bulldogs finished eighth in the SEC with a 5-5-1 mark. The Bulldogs started the season 9-2-0, but Georgia has lost four of their last six matches, getting shutout in three of the four losses.
The Bulldogs non-conference wins came against UNC Greensboro (3-0), Cal State Fullerton (2-1 – ot), Houston (4-0), UCF (1-0) and Furman (4-0) and the loss came against Long Beach State (3-2). Georgia’s SEC wins came against Vanderbilt (3-1), South Carolina (1-0), Tennessee (2-1), Mississippi State (3-1) and LSU (2-0) with a draw against Ole Miss (1-1) and losses to Missouri (2-0), Alabama (2-0) and Kentucky (2-0).
Georgia has four players with double digits in the points column. Gabby Seiler leads the team with 27 points on nine goals and nine assists. Rachel Garcia has 16 points with five goals and six assists. Marion Crowder has tallied 14 with six goals and two assists. Kelsey Killean has 11 points with three goals and five assists.
Georgia has eight NCAA Tournament appearances, including three in the last six seasons. There best showing came in 1998 when the Bulldogs advanced to the Sweet 16.
CHALLENGING NON-CONFERENCE SLATE
The non-conference slate was one of the toughest on record for the Aggies. All eight opponents finished in the Top 100 in the final RPI last season, with Arizona being the lowest rated team at 83. Marquette (6), UCF (13), Stephen F Austin (51), Arizona State (60), Illinois State (66), Florida Gulf Coast (67), Dayton (70) and Arizona finished last season with an average RPI of 52 compared to last year’s eight non-conference opponents owning an average RPI of 101.
FACING CHAMPIONS
Texas A&M’s non-conference schedule was challenging with six of the eight opponents having won their league’s regular-season title in 2013. The Aggies went 6-0 against the champions, outscoring the crop, 17-5. The defending league champions on the non-conference slate included Dayton (Atlantic 10), Stephen F. Austin (Southland), UCF (The American), Illinois State (Missouri Valley), FGCU (Atlantic Sun) and Marquette (Big East). All six teams were selected to repeat as 2014 champions in their league’s respective preseason coaches’ polls. The two non-conference opponents who did not win conference titles last year are Arizona and Arizona State, who both finished in the middle of the powerhouse Pac 12 Conference that produced national champion UCLA.
GUERRIERI RANKS AMONG THE NATION’S WINNINGEST COACHES
Texas A&M head coach G Guerrieri ranks among the leaders in winning percentage and victories among active Division I coaches. With a career record of 387-120-29 (.749), he ranks fifth in victories and sixth in winning percentage (minimum five years as a Division I head coach). Guerrieri ranks sixth all-time among NCAA Division I coaches in victories, trailing North Carolina’s Anson Dorrance (777), Connecticut’s Len Tsantiris (523), Florida’s Becky Burleigh (433), Santa Clara’s Jerry Smith (421) and Randy Waldrum (400), who left Notre Dame in the off-season to become head coach of the Houston Dash of the NWSL.
NIP-AND-TUCK
Over the last two years the Aggies have fared well in tightly contest matches, going 17-4-4 in matches decided by one goal or less. This season, A&M has posted one-goal wins over Dayton (4-3), Stephen F. Austin (1-0), Florida Gulf Coast (2-1), Ole Miss (2-1), Kentucky (2-1), Arkansas (2-1) and Georgia (2-1), but played Arizona (2-2) and South Carolina (2-2) to draws and suffered a 2-1 defeat at Arizona State and 1-0 loss to Florida.
In 2013, Texas A&M played 14 matches decided by one goal or less, posting a 10-2-2 record in those contests. Nine of the Aggies’ last 10 wins were decided by one goal, including three victories at the SEC Tournament and their NCAA Championship first round win against Utah. A&M’s only blemishes in close matches were 1-0 losses against Duke and Tennessee and a 0-0 draw against Baylor. The Aggies also played to a 2-2 draw against Texas Tech in the NCAA Championship second round, but advanced to the third round on penalty kicks.
SEC PRESEASON POLL
Entering their third season in the SEC, the Texas A&M Aggies were selected second in the 2014 SEC Preseason Soccer Coaches’ Poll. The Aggies were edged out by the Florida Gators in voting by the league’s 14 head coaches. Texas A&M received 162 points (six first-place votes) and trailed only the Gators, who accumulated 164 points, including eight first-place votes. Points were compiled on a 13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis though each coach was not allowed to vote for their own squad.
DAY CLIMBING CAREER WINS LIST
Jordan Day enters the weekend with a career record of 52-16-6. She ranks third on the Aggies’ career list for goalkeeper victories, trailing only Kati Jo Spisak, who owns the school record with her 69-21-6 mark from 2002-05, and Melanie Wilson who logged 66 wins from 1996-99.
BIG 12 ERA
The Aggies won their 12th-and-final Big 12 Championship during the 2011 conference tournament. With just 15 seconds left in the Championship match, Tournament MVP and then-freshman Kelley Monogue weaved through three defenders and ricocheted a shot off of the left post that found then-senior Megan Majewski at 18 yards from goal. Majewski fired with nine seconds on the clock and netted the 1-0 goal against Oklahoma State to win the tournament. The Aggies were the only team in the conference to earn a Big 12 Tournament berth in the first 16 years of its existence.
RETURNING STARTERS
The Aggies return 255 of their 275 starts on the pitch from 2013 (92.7 percent). All 20 starts missing from a year ago belong to Rachel Lenz. The Round Rock product started 20 games on the backline and added one goal and one assist.
SENSATIONAL SENIORS
The Aggies sport one of the most impactful senior classes to ever grace a collegiate soccer field with Allie Bailey, Bianca Brinson, Jordan Day, Leigh Edwards, Shea Groom, Annie Kunz, Renee McDermott, Kelley Monogue and Meghan Streight. Texas A&M’s nine seniors account for 405 of the possible 814 starts over the last three seasons, a rate of 49.8 percent. The tally includes 90 of 264 starts (.341) in their freshman campaign of 2011, 138 of 275 starts (.502) in 2012 and 177 of 275 starts (.643) in 2013.
The corps of seven field players has served to deliver a bulk of the payload the last four seasons, accounting for 135 of the 185 goals (.730). This season, the seniors have scored all five goals. As freshmen they scored 52 of A&M’s 76 goals (.684) and accounted for 37 of 48 (.771) in 2012 and 41 of 56 (.732) in 2013. The class has registered 84 of the Aggies’ 184 assists (.457), with the most impactful year coming last season with 29 of 48 assists (.604). The point tally for their career stands at 354 of the Maroon and White’s 554 (.639).
Day and McDermott have combined to play all but 17 minutes in goal the last four seasons, accounting for all 76 starts.
HIGH-SCORING TRIO
The Aggies roster boasts three of the 22 active players with 88 or more career points. Kelley Monogue ranks sixth among all active players with 114 points. Shea Groom ranks 16th with 97 points. Annie Kunz reports in at 22nd with 88 points. The only other squad with multiple players on the list is Virginia with Makenzy Doniak in 10th with 106 points and Morgan Brian in 11th with 104 points.
THE NCAA’S MOST EXPERIENCED SQUAD
The Aggies boast one of the most experienced squad in the nation for 2014. Currently, Texas A&M has six of the top 14 active players in terms of matches played. Allie Bailey and Meghan Streight enter the weekend tied for fourth among all active players with 93 matches. Kelley Monogue is in seventh place with 92 matches under her belt. Leigh Edwards ranks ninth with 91 matches and Annie Kunz and Bianca Brinson are tied for 11th place with 89 matches.
MONOGUE AMONG TOP ACTIVE PLAYERS IN GOALS SCORED
Kelley Monogue enters the week ranked eighth among all active players in goals scored with 46. Illinois State’s Rachel Tejada leads the nation with 67, followed by Winthrop’s Krystyna Freda with 63 and LaSalle’s Kelsey Haycook with 58. Furman’s Stephanie DeVita ranks fourth with 50 goals and Stephen F. Austin’s Chelsea Raymond is fifth with 49. Hofstra’s Sam Scolarici and Furman’s Stephanie Verdoia are tied for sixth with 48.
SHE’LL SHOOT YOUR EYE OUT
Bianca “B.B.” Brinson has a pair of last minute goals this season that have altered the results of Aggie games. In A&M’s 2-2 tie against Arizona, Brinson scored her second goal of the match with 33 seconds remaining as the Maroon and White staved off defeat. In the Aggies’ home match against Kentucky, Brinson tallied a goal with 52 second remaining to send A&M to a 2-1 victory.
RPI NOTES
The Aggies enter the SEC Tournament with a No. 3 ranking in the RPI released by the NCAA on November. Seventeen of A&M’s 19 opponents are in the top 100, including 11 in the Top 50. The Aggies are 13-2-2 against RPI Top 100 squads and 7-2-2 against RPI Top 50. Texas A&M and UCLA lead the country with 13 wins against RPI Top 100 squads and A&M is one of just five teams with seven or more wins against the RPI Top 50 (Stanford 9, UCLA 8, West Virginia 8, Texas A&M 7, Florida 7).
AGED ARSENAL
114 of the Aggies’ 141 points and 42 of the 49 goals this season have been scored by seniors. Shea Groom (13), Kelley Monogue (11), Bianca Brinson (6), Annie Kunz (5), Allie Bailey (5), Leigh Edwards (1), and Meghan Streight (1) account for the 42 senior goals. Janae Cousineau (6) and Haley Pounds (1) have accounted for the seven goals not scored by seniors.
SET PIECE SUCCESS
Seventeen of the Aggies’ 49 goals this season have come on set pieces, including eight corner kicks, seven free kicks, one throw-in and one penalty kick. A&M scored on a corner kick in each of the first four matches of the season. In their SEC opener, Shea Groom scored off a free kick and a throw-in en route to her second career hat trick.
ONE-TWO PUNCH
The Aggies boast one of the most prominent one-two scoring punches in the nation this season. Shea Groom (13) and Kelley Monogue (11) rank second and third, respectively, in the SEC in goals scored and they’re tied for 21st and 45th, respectively, nationally.
Monogue (30 – 11 goals and 8 assists) and Groom (29 – 13 goals and 3 assists) rank second and third in the SEC in points and they rank 33rd and 35th nationally. A&M is the only SEC squad with two or more 29-point scorers this season and one of just three teams in the nation (East Tennessee State and Hofstra).
30-20 CLUB
There are 14 active NCAA Division I players with 30 or more goals and 20 or more assists and Texas A&M boasts two of them. Kelley Monogue has 46 goals and 22 assists and Shea Groom has 38 goals and 21 assists. Virginia is the only other team with multiple players in the 30-20 club (Morgan Brian 35 g, 34 a; Makenzy Doniak 42 g, 22 a).
Monogue is one of just eight active players with 40 or more goals and 20 or more assists.
TEXAS A&M SEC TOURNAMENT RECORDS
INDIVIDUAL GOALS
Game
2, Liz Keester (vs South Carolina – W, 2-1 [semifinal]; November 8, 2013)
Tournament
3, Liz Keester (2013)
Career
3, Liz Keester (2013-current)
INDIVIDUAL ASSISTS
Game
1, six times
Tournament
2, Shea Groom (2013)
Career
2, Shea Groom (2012-current)
AGGIES NOTCH THEIR 200th WIN AT ELLIS FIELD
With their 2-1 win over Kentucky, the Aggies notched their 200th win at Ellis Field. Texas A&M owns a 202-30-6 (.861) all-time record at Ellis Field (formerly Aggie Soccer Stadium). The Maroon and White have called the field home since the 1994 season, playing the inaugural 1993 season at Old Tiger Field. Since 2005, the Aggies have registered a 102-14-6 (.861) mark on the friendly pitch. Texas A&M is 209-30-6 (.865) all-time in College Station, going 7-0-0 in their one season at Old Tiger Field.
UP NEXT
If the Aggies win, they will play either Missouri or South Carolina in a 3:30 pm semifinal contest Friday, November 7.
Story courtesy of Texas A&M Athletics