COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas A&M scored three goals in the first half and held the Commodores to just four shots on goal for the entire game to pick up the 3-0 win from Ellis Field on Sunday. Cheyna Williams took a team high five shots in the contest and put three of them on the net.
“Today was very frustrating for us overall,” said Vandy head coach Derek Greene. “Texas A&M is a quality team and to five up three set piece goals against them is not going to be good enough.”
Vanderbilt (3-6-2, 0-3-0 SEC) couldn’t get anything going offensively, taking a season-low eight shots. Defensively, the Commodores didn’t play much better allowing 26 shots, 17 of which coming in the first half.
“As a young group we still need to handle certain situations better,” said Greene. “We were just not very good this weekend and we have not said that about his group that much this season. We have been solid game in and game out, this weekend we were our own problem.”
Texas A&M (7-3-1, 2-1-0 SEC) got on the board in the 17th minute when Karlie Mueller sent a free kick from 30-yards out into the six-yard box for Shea Groom who headed the ball into the back of the net.
The Aggies would score twice more before the end of the half on a goal from Bianca Brinson in the 26th minute and a penalty kick goal from Allie Bailey in the 37th minute.
At the half, TAMU held a 17-4 advantage in shots over Vandy.
Coming out of the locker room at the half the Commodores played like a different team.
Though Vanderbilt didn’t get on the board it was able to get much clearer looks at the net, and it also silenced the Texas A&M offense which had scored 11 goals in its last three halves of play.
“One thing you know about A&M is that they bomb some long range shots and serve a lot of balls into the box that can be very dangerous. I thought we handled that aspect of the game well today. Now we are just going to get back to work this week and get ready for two big home games next weekend.”
Vanderbilt will host Missouri and Kentucky next weekend at the VU Soccer Complex. Both games are scheduled to be aired on television. Fox Sports Net will carry the coverage of both games. Friday against Missouri will be a 7 p.m. start and Sunday against UK will be a 1:00 p.m. start.
