The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas A&M
Soccer advances to NCAA Third Round with dramatic 3-2 win over No. 2-seeded Texas A&M
11.17.2007 | Soccer
COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The sixth-ranked Texas Soccer team advanced to the NCAA Championship third round (round of 16) for the third time in school history Saturday night with a dramatic 3-2 victory over host and No. 2 nationally-ranked Texas A&M in NCAA Championship second round play in a game marred by rain and hail and weather delays.
Texas, now 16-3-5, trailed 1-0 at halftime before receiving second-half goals from freshman Erika Campanelli and seniors Caitlin Kennedy and Kelsey Carpenter. Carpenter nailed the game-winner in the 78th minute off an assist from Kennedy.
The win for the Longhorns moves head coach Chris Petrucelli's squad into NCAA third-round play next weekend. Texas will face the winner of the Florida State-LSU second-round match, which will be contested on Sunday, Nov. 18 at noon CST in Tallahassee, Fla. at the Seminole Soccer Complex.
Texas A&M, a No. 2 seed in the NCAA tourney, ended its season at 18-4-2. The Aggies also saw their 20-match home field win streak snapped with the setback.
The Longhorns have now bested the Aggies in four of the last five meetings. This was the third meeting between the two squads this season, with the last coming six days ago in San Antonio in the Big 12 Championship Tournament final. In that match, the second-seeded Longhorns upset the No. 1 seeded Aggies, 2-1.
The game started with a 50-minute inclement weather delay because of pending hail and thunderstorms in the area.
Once the match began, the Aggies wasted no time in shooting, posting 10 shots in the first half compared to four by Texas.
The lone score of the first half came on a Texas "own" goal. In trying to stop the NCAA's leading goal-scorer Ashlee Pistorius, junior defender Kasey Moore attempted to clear a cross from the senior striker, who entered with 25 goals and nine assists on the season.
With A&M holding a slight advantage on the scoreboard, Texas fought hard in the second half, scoring all three goals in the final 45 minutes.
Carpenter (Allen, Texas), who scored the game-winner, started the play that led to the first goal of the game by freshman defender Campanelli (Plano, Texas). Carpenter beat TAMU sophomore defender Nicole Ketchum to set up a one-on-one with TAMU sophomore goalkeeper Kristin Arnold right in front of the goal. Ketchum came from behind to knock the ball out of bounds and set up a Texas corner. Junior midfielder Courtney Gaines (Sugar Land, Texas) took the corner, placing the ball inside the six-yard box. Campanelli headed it in from the center right side of the nets in 54th minute for her first career goal.
Kennedy (Euless, Texas) put UT ahead with the second Horns' goal of game, placing a shot from 35-yards out into the nets in the 72nd minute. Kennedy played the ball off a well-defended throw-in, settling before firing over Arnold.
Carpenter added an insurance goal with her 10th goal of the season with 12 minutes left. While it put Texas ahead 3-1, the score became the game-winner as Texas A&M senior defender Sara Albrecht netted the fifth and final goal of the match, bringing the Aggies to within one goal, 3-2.
With the game-winner, Carpenter shares first place (13 GWGs) in UT's record books with Kelly McDonald (2001-04) and Kelly Wilson (2001-04).
UT junior goalkeeper Dianna Pfenninger (Sugar Land, Texas) was peppered with TAMU shots, including 13 of 23 overall shots in the second half. Texas' career leader in goalkeeper wins (41) totaled seven saves in 90 minutes of action.
Her counterpart, Arnold (Centennial, Colo.), faced her fair share of attempts, registering seven saves.
With 12 minutes remaining on the clock before the scheduled 5:30 p.m. CST kickoff, the game was postponed due to pending inclement weather. Both teams returned to the field for a 6:20 start time.
STATS (UT-TAMU): Shots 23-13, Corners 8-6, Fouls 8-8.
POSTGAME QUOTES
SENIOR Kelsey Carpenter
It's always a positive to win a road game. We've never won on the road in College Station in my career so it feels great. We know that this environment is tough to play in but none of the fans or the environment can affect what goes on between the lines. That's what we were focused on tonight.
FRESHMAN Erica Campanelli
Someone had to score, we needed to come back. I was just glad I could do it. It felt great. If I'm going to score, now's a great time to score a goal, so it's really exciting.
JUNIOR Dianna Pfenninger
On the own goal: Their forward played just one across and I started stepping because I thought it was going by and Kasey just got her toe on it. Things happen, it's soccer. There's something different every game. It's just unlucky that it had to happen that way and unfortunate on our part that the ball bounced the right way for them.
TEXAS HEAD COACH Chris Petrucelli
The response of our team at halftime was probably the most important part of the game for us. I felt we laid down a little in the first half. We sat deep and didn't get numbers forward and they had a lot of play in the first half. They had the ball a lot; they served a lot of balls into the box. But Dianna got onto a lot of those balls, so I don't know that it was that dangerous but they certainly had territory. In the second half, we decided to go to three forwards instead of two. We were down a goal, we needed to come back and try to do something offensively. We were really anemic offensively in the first half, so we were able to get some pressure on and fortunately get a couple of goals and get ahead. If we get a lead we are tough to beat.
