No. 15 Aggie Soccer Edged Out by No. 9 Pepperdine, 1-0

Thomas Dick, Texas A&M Athletics Communications

BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The No. 15 Texas A&M Aggies dropped a 1-0 decision to the No. 9 Pepperdine Waves on Sunday afternoon at Ellis Field.

The Waves scored the lone goal 3:08 into the match and the Aggies spent the next 87 minutes looking for an equalizer to no avail.

Pepperdine owned the advantages in shots (12-10) and shots-on-goal (6-2) while the corner kicks were even at 6-6.

Kenna Caldwell made five saves to keep the Maroon & White in striking distance.

Texas A&M owned advantages in shots (6-5) and corner kicks (4-2) in the second half, but they were unable to capitalize.

The loss snapped a pair of streaks for Texas A&M. The Maroon & White had their six match unbeaten string stopped as well as their 14-match home win streak.

The Aggies dropped to 5-3-1 on the season while Pepperdine improved to 9-1-0.

With nearly $9,000 already donated on-line, the Aggies are expecting the money they raised for the battle against childhood cancer to exceed $15,000 with the money acquired via the sale of Turn It Gold scarves and the auction of their game-worn gold jerseys.

SCORING SUMMARY
4′ – Kam Pickett played a ball down her right touch line to Tori Waldeck. Waldeck worked the ball into the penalty box sending a cross to Joelle Anderson who scored with a left footer to the left of the keeper. PU 1, A&M 0.

UP NEXT
The Aggies return to Ellis Field on Thursday for an SEC matchup against the Arkansas Razorbacks. First kick is slated for 6 p.m.

TEXAS A&M QUOTES
Head Coach G Guerrieri
On the match…
“Bottom line was Pepperdine is a really good team and really well coached. You can see the different between a team with a lot of fifth-year seniors (Pepperdine) and a team with a lot of freshmen and sophomores (Texas A&M). You can see a little bit of experience is a difference maker.”

On what he learned from the match…
“Our learning curve is continuing. This is our last non-conference game and fourth top 10 team that we have played. We are just a hair behind them.”

Senior midfielder Kendall Bates
On adapting to Pepperdine’s playstyle…
“Yeah, it’s definitely very frustrating. One of the things that we talked about before the game was that this was a game where we were going to have to fight just to get the ball. So that definitely adds a whole nother element. But, you just gotta do what you gotta do to stay in the game.”

Senior defender Karlina Sample
On dealing with Pepperdine’s high-press offense…
“Well, obviously it was frustrating, just the fact that it resulted in a loss today. However, it is something that we know a lot of teams are going to do to us, just having the status and the reputation that we’ve had in the past. With the success that we’ve had in the past… we know it’s coming. At this point it’s just on us to adjust and prepare the right way.”

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