Good win for A&M tonight. After an abysmal first half with almost no offense at all, the Ags dominated the second half with multiple chances on goal and deserved to win the match. A&M kept plugging away in the offensive third and the dam finally broke.

• The winning goal was a thing of beauty all around, with Ali Russell making a great hustle play and fighting down the sideline to keep the ball and delivering a perfect cross to Watt, who shielded her defender well and turned and shot accurately to the corner for the winner. One of the best sequences of the season. Hopefully Ali has found her niche on the team now.
• Lopez continues to fire in cross after cross in near perfect locations for someone to finish. Unfortunately, we don't have many players that can connect accurately for goals. There were two headers that should have been scored for sure. Just not good enough and we are wasting some great play by Jimena.
• Caldwell clearly outplayed Burbank and should be the GK going forward. Her instincts are the best on the team and we need to give her a couple of games to establish herself further. I was impressed with her.
• Katie Smith is just inches away from being a very good all-around player, both in the back and in the attack. Exciting future for her. Alston had another solid game as well.

A&M will probably have to win out to get a seed in the tourney, but at least maybe we found a formula tonight in the second half to be more dangerous in the attack the rest of the season. The most encouraging thing was seeing Watt finally put together a full game and be the star player we all expected this season.

Ally, Taylor, Katie, Jimena, Macie and Briana played all 109+ minutes. That was a brilliant free kick by Jimena with 15 minutes gone in the second half. She bent it around the left side of the wall and the keeper barely saved it. Any free kick from within 40 yards she needs to take.

According to Chris Henderson of All White Kit our RPI improved to 19 after the win last night.

HiddenAg2 said:

---

Good win for A&M tonight. After an abysmal first half with almost no offense at all, the Ags dominated the second half with multiple chances on goal and deserved to win the match. A&M kept plugging away in the offensive third and the dam finally broke.

• The winning goal was a thing of beauty all around, with Ali Russell making a great hustle play and fighting down the sideline to keep the ball and delivering a perfect cross to Watt, who shielded her defender well and turned and shot accurately to the corner for the winner. One of the best sequences of the season. Hopefully Ali has found her niche on the team now.
• Lopez continues to fire in cross after cross in near perfect locations for someone to finish. Unfortunately, we don't have many players that can connect accurately for goals. There were two headers that should have been scored for sure. Just not good enough and we are wasting some great play by Jimena.
• Caldwell clearly outplayed Burbank and should be the GK going forward. Her instincts are the best on the team and we need to give her a couple of games to establish herself further. I was impressed with her.
• Katie Smith is just inches away from being a very good all-around player, both in the back and in the attack. Exciting future for her. Alston had another solid game as well.

A&M will probably have to win out to get a seed in the tourney, but at least maybe we found a formula tonight in the second half to be more dangerous in the attack the rest of the season. The most encouraging thing was seeing Watt finally put together a full game and be the star player we all expected this season.

---

Thank you, Hidden. Good analysis. I'm sure glad you're back posting regularly. That game-winner was, indeed a thing of beauty, with great effort and determination by both Ali and Ally. Super hold, turn, and hammer by Ally.

Some other observations:

• I agree with you that I hope we see more of Ali Russell. She seems to bring so much more determination than Kolb. It would be good to see them each getting playing time.
• You are spot-on about Lopez. She is relentless and gets off high-quality crosses time after time, even though defenders know that's what she's going to try to do. Sometimes I have no idea how she manages to squeeze that cross into the tiniest of spaces between the by line and the defender's lunge, but she does it with precision and regularity. AND THEN she hits it so well that the end of the cross is in a dangerous spot. Jimena has improved her tactical skill, her precision, her quickness, and her speed while she's been at A&M. She's just a delight to watch play. She's one of the few college players who seems to truly live up to the oft-stated goal of getting a little better every day.
• I am in complete agreement about Katie Smith, too. She's dang good, and plays with tremendous effort and poise. It's been a long time since A&M has had a defender who is completely confident carrying a ball past and around defenders all the way into the opponent's box. Katie could turn out to be a game-changing defender for A&M. She seems to have found a perfect spot--she's been more impactful as a defender than as a midfielder.
• Speaking of the opponent's box, for the life of me I can't fathom why Addie is so reluctant to venture into it. In the Vandy game, not only did she do the thing of stopping and backpedaling when she got close, she actually sent a "pass" to the corner flag (not to a teammate) instead of continuing to run with the ball into the box. It's mystifying. She could be so much more impactful with just a tad more aggression in that final 1/4 of the field.
• The win versus Vandy gives me hope this team will fight for every game through the rest of the year and might pull out some surprising results. It could turn out that the "rebuilding" has been occurring in front of our eyes during mid-season.