Texas A&M's soccer team finished off its own unique daily double by defeating No. 2 Portland 3-1 on Friday at the Aggie Soccer Complex.
A&M opened the season with 3-0 victory over No. 8 Southern Cal, making Friday's win over the Pilots the Aggies' second against teams that won NCAA titles on A&M's home field, which will also host this year's Women's College Cup. Portland won it all in 2005 and USC in 2007.
"That's good, but again people want to come and play here because it's a great environment, it's a great field and one of the things about us is people come here and we want them to experience the pros and the cons," A&M coach G. Guerrieri said. "And it's nice we could have a good performance and send them home with a loss."
With the victory, the No. 13 Aggies (4-3) handed Portland (7-1) its first loss and avoided dropping below .500 for the first time since the fifth game of the 2002 season, when the Pilots lost three in a row.
"Portland is a super team that plays with a great style, they have very good players and are very well disciplined and coached," Guerrieri said. "It took a good effort by our players, and it's nice to be winning again."
Whitney Hooper scored twice and Jen Kmezich found the net for the first time this season for the Aggies. It was their fourth match against a top 15 team this year.
"I thought we finished some good chances and Hooper had a great game and really got herself going again," Guerrieri said. "I think those other games against top 10 teams helped us win this one today."
After a tightly marked 33 minutes, substitute Kmezich put the Aggies up with a header from close range that hit the bottom of the crossbar and just barely crossed the goal line before coming back out.
"It seemed like a bit of a waiting game initially, waiting to see who would draw first blood and it was a great corner and a really great finish by Jen to get up on it," Guerrieri said.
The goal, which started on a corner from Becca Herrera, was not awarded immediately. But the head referee and his assistant got together and made the call, much to the dismay of Portland keeper Kelsey Davis and head coach Garrett Smith, who each discussed the play with different officials after the call was made.
There was no arguing goals 2 and 3, though. The speedy Hooper got both of those, a result of having her way on the right side for most of the night against the Pilots.
Alyssa Mautz slid the ball onto Hooper's outside foot near the right corner of the box, and Hooper put Megan Sweeney on her shoulder and directed a ball under Davis and into the far-side netting for a 2-0 lead.
"This game I just had to get everything situated and I was more comfortable and more relaxed," Hooper said. "Before I got the ball I already knew what I was going to do, so it felt great.
"Mautz had a great ball through to me for the first goal, it was perfect, right in my space and I just cut in and went to goal.
The final tally came less than five minutes after the Pilots had pulled to within a goal and two minutes after Hooper just missed from in close while being knocked off the ball after a long punt from keeper Kristin Arnold.
On Hooper's third goal of the season, the junior took a feed from Rachel Shipley and jammed a short shot inside the near post in the 52nd minute.
"We just wanted to make a statement, put our foot down and let everyone know we can play," Hooper said.
Friday's match was the first in which the Pilots gave up three goals since losing 3-2 in overtime to UCLA in the 2007 NCAA quarterfinals.
The Pilots avoided the shutout and cut the lead in half on a goal by Michelle Winters that was almost a carbon copy of Kmezich's first goal of the season.
Danielle Foxhoven provided the service on a set piece halfway between the corner post and the goal box, and Winters got above everybody to send it past Arnold, who came on in the second half for Kelly Dyer.
A&M had a couple of other opportunities to score early. Kim Castleberry's shot from an angle was saved by Davis and deflected off the goal post, and the second came early in the second half when defender Emily Peterson moved up on a corner and had a shot cleared off the line by a defender.
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NOTES -- Senior midfielder Amber Gnatzig had to leave the game midway through the first half with a right knee injury. The severity of it was unknown after the game, but she was standing on the sideline with it lightly wrapped. ... The Pilots' Keelin Winters scored her goal against Arnold. The two were teammates for a while on a club team in Colorado. ... Attendance was 3,542. ... Portland's Michelle Enyeart came in as the reigning national player of the week after scoring four goals in her last two games but only got off two shots Friday, one on frame. ... The two teams had one common opponent, California, coming into the game. Portland defeated the Bears 4-0 at home, while A&M lost 1-0 at Cal.
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