PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Texas A&M soccer team battles the Georgia Bulldogs in Thursday’s SEC Tournament semifinal match. First kick at Escambia County Stadium is 7:30 p.m.
The winner advances to Sunday’s title match to face either regular season champion Arkansas or No. 4 seed Mississippi State.
The Maroon & White earned the semifinal spot with Tuesday’s 1-0 victory against No. 15 South Carolina. The Aggies’ win was sparked by Sydney Becerra’s 79th minute golazo and a stout defense which posted its ninth shutout of the season.
The Aggies are 15-7 (.682) at the SEC Tournament. Texas A&M has advanced to the championship match in four of the 11 prior seasons in the league, including winning titles in 2013, ’14 and ’17. Since the 2012 season when the Aggies joined the SEC, the Maroon & White have the most shutouts in the SEC Tournament with 10. Florida and Arkansas are next on the list with seven clean sheets. The Aggies lead the league with 15 wins at the tournament since 2012.
Ol’ Sarge’s charges own a tradition of success at conference tournaments with an overall mark of 38-17-14 (.652) in league tournaments. A&M posted a 23-10-4 (.676) record at the Big XII Championship and won the title in five of the tournament’s first 16 years. The Aggies won Big XII crowns in 1997, 2001, ’04, ’05 and ’11.
Texas A&M owns a 7-2-0 edge in the all-time series with all the meetings coming since the Aggies joined the SEC for the 2012 campaign. Georgia won the most recent bout, 3-2, at Ellis Field to open the 2022 SEC schedule. Texas A&M lost despite owning a 19-7 advantage in shots, including 7-3 in shots-on-goal. Taylor Pounds and Andersen Williams scored equalizers in the 15th and 37th minutes, respectively, but Georgia’s Daisa Torbert scored a 69th-minute game-winner. The teams have met once in SEC Tournament play. In 2014, Bianca Brinson, Annie Kunz and Meghan Streight scored for Texas A&M in a 3-0 quarterfinal victory en route to a tournament title.
Georgia is 9-4-5 on the season and finished with the same 4-3-3 league ledger as the Aggies. The Bulldogs performed the last 88 minutes with just 10 players in their 2-1 semifinal victory over Kentucky. Georgia’s offense is led by Nicole Vernis with 14 points on four goals and six…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Texas A&M Athletics – 12thMan.com…