A&M soccer falls to UC Irvine

UC Irvine survived the 100-degree temperatures and the heat put on them by the Texas A&M Aggies for a 1-0 victory at Ellis Field on Sunday afternoon.

An early goal stood for 83 minutes despite the No. 11 Aggies (1-1) outshooting the No. 17 Anteaters (2-0) 21-5 overall and 13-1 in the second half.

"It's just a good example of everything counts," said A&M coach G. Guerrieri. "The other team gets a chance and we don't do everything we can to keep it out of the back of the net and it goes in. We get so many chances and we just don't finish them off."

The Aggies can look at themselves for not finishing on a number of occasions, but the Irvine triangle of central defenders CoCo Goodson and Sarah Devine and goalkeeper Jennifer Randazzo played just as big a role in keeping A&M off the scoresheet.

"We get around the corners on them and we play the ball to the goalkeeper instead of people open in front of the goal," Guerrieri said. "We get in on breakaways and we miss the goal without hitting the frame, little things like that. [We had] some great service from our flank people that we just don't get on the end of or we get on the end of but not well enough."

A&M's best opportunities came in the second 45 minutes.

Merritt Mathias was in on almost all the Aggie opportunities, nearly scoring on a corner kick, getting through on a ball from Katie Perry but firing wide and finally making Randazzo come through one last time on a hard-driving free kick from distance just before the whistle blew.

Mathias also had a hand in starting the attacks, sending Bianca Brinson into the penalty box 1 v 1 with Randazzo, who came off her line and made the save, and later crossing a ball that Meghan Streight headed to the ground and had bounce off the cross bar and out.

Devine and Goodson did the rest -- especially Goodson, a transfer from Texas who used her 5-foot-11 frame to clear many balls, particularly on corners. A&M had 11 compared to two for the Anteaters.

"Don't get me wrong [about it being only A&M missing opportunities], I thought their goalkeeper was tremendous," Guerrieri said. "I thought their back line, especially the two in the middle 12 and 23 really did a great job of keeping the integrity of the back line."

Irvine's goal wasn't exactly off the run of play, but that it found the back of the net was somewhat of a surprise as it didn't look menacing until it crossed the goal line.

Lexi Kopf got her right foot about waist high to take a cross from Dana Sanderlin and redirect the ball to the near post past Jordan Day, who appeared to be stuck between two minds.

"She let the ball play her instead of her taking her hands to the ball, and then thought she had it and took her eye off the ball and the ball ends up trickling in the back of the net," Guerrieri said. "You know, that sometimes happens, it just can't happen again and it's something we have to learn from to get better on."

The Anteaters' only other true scoring opportunity came after the Aggies brought in another attacker looking for the equalizer. Alexis Rafael got behind the back line of three, but her chip shot over a charging Day also cleared the crossbar.

"We played the last quarter of the game throwing people forward, and again, good for Irvine to be able to withstand," said Guerrieri.

"We tried a lot of stuff, it wasn't like we just threw a lineup out there and said, 'Go get them.' We made adjustments and good things happened from it, but we didn't get the result we needed."

In the first game, Fresno State (1-1) broke open a scoreless draw midway through the second half for a 4-0 win over UTSA (0-2).

A&M goes on the road for its next two matches, playing Florida and Tennessee in Knoxville this weekend.