Well, the offseason just flew by didn't it? And somehow we find ourselves in September entrenched in conference play. Aggie soccer season is set to kick off in a nationally televised Saturday matchup at Ole Miss. Naturally.

Aggies @ Ole Miss Saturday, September 19, 5:00PM SEC Network

It's a weird moment. But at least this is a familiar foe. A&M is 6-2-2 against Ole Miss, with all 10 matches occurring since the Aggies made the jump to the SEC. Last season, the Aggies knocked Ole Miss off in Aggieland by a score of 2-1. The two sides tied 1-1 in 2018, the last time they played each other in Oxford. Ole Miss' last win against the Aggies came in 2016, when CeCe Kizer notched the gamewinner. Kizer is now teammates with Shea Groom on the Houston Dash.

The Aggies lost some key pieces from last year's 14-5-3 squad, most notably Ally Watt. Along with the 5 departing seniors, A&M also lost Jordan Hill, Asdis Halldorsdottir, and Abby Grace Cooper.

Ole Miss lost four players that saw meaningful minutes last year, including two seniors. Their most notable departure was midfielder Julia Phillips who was top 5 in minutes played for Ole Miss last season and accounted for 5 goals.

Ole Miss finished their 2019 season with a 10-7-3 record, including a 3-4-3 mark in conference play. They did not advance to the NCAA Tournament. That 2019 squad outscored opponents 33-27.

Ashley Orkus played every single minute in goal for Ole Miss last season as a sophomore. She totaled 90 saves in that span, including a season high 10 saves in her game at Texas A&M.

Channing Foster provided the bulk of the team's scoring with 10 goals during her 2019 junior season, including the lone team goal at A&M last year. She also had 3 assists and was named 1st team All SEC.

Haleigh Stackpole provided support from midfield last season with her 5 goals and 4 assists. She provided the assist on Foster's goal against the Aggies last season.

So here we are. No non-conference games, no real preseason to speak of. It will be an interesting game within an uncertain season. But I'm glad that Aggie soccer is back.

As a reminder, Ole miss is limiting their attendance to 25% of capacity in accordance to a state order. That amounts to about 375 fans. They averaged about 731 fans per game last season.

Their tickets will be distributed to player guests and select groups of fans and will not be offered to the general public. All seating will be done in a "pod" format which limits groups to 2-4 members of a household.

What happened to Jordan Hill, Asdis Halldorsdottir, and Abby Grace Cooper?

I was just comparing last year's roster to this year's. But...

I believe Jordan graduated and accepted a job offer.
Asdis didn't come back from Iceland I believe (I don't think it was covid related).
I'm guessing Abby Grace retired due to injuries.

EDIT: Asdis is playing professionally with Valur Reykjavk.
https://www.valur.is/fotbolti/leikmenn/meistaraflokkur-kvenna.aspx
They're reigning champions of the top league in Iceland.

CDub06 said:

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Well, the offseason just flew by didn't it?

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No.

Anything could happen this weekend. With no game since March and a less strenuous preseason mixed with rebuilding the offense, it's anyone's guess how we'll look in this first game. Not to mention that we haven't exactly crushed Ole Miss lately. I'd be shocked to see either team looking very polished, I hope pure talent wins out in the end.

Ok, thanks.

we need a roster break down for this season. lost so much, no idea of who the new people are.
By my count we have 5 players who have played multiple seasons for the Ags. Fortunately we have one of the better players in the league/country in Jimena Lopez. We need a lot of people to step up offensively, most notably Taylor Ziemmer, Addie McCain, Ali Russell/Rheagen Smith. We have 9 fish. I do not know much about them but I hope they are ready to play, there will be lots of opportunity.

New coach?

Does anyone have a link to the schedule?

Ag Natural said:

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Does anyone have a link to the schedule?

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https://12thman.com/sports/womens-soccer/schedule

MookieBlaylock said:

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New coach?

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There he is!

This is my favorite secret Aggie newsletter.

12th man.com has a preview of the defenders that was put out yesterday.

I just read that.
We are thin at defender. I hope Karlina can stay healthy as she is the only returning true defender. It's interesting having Jimena in the defender writeup, she may be listed as a defender but she mostly played mid last year. She will not be anchored on the back line by any means. I really hope she is playing outside mid. Katie Smith is probably not going to see much time at mid but I expect her to carry the ball forward often. I do not remember Kolb playing defender very much last year, mostly outside mid. 2 freshman forwards in the defender writeup shows how thin we are.
I would guess we go with 3 backs again.

Looking at Flightaware it looks like the team is taking Ameristar's 737 to Oxford rather than a United regional jet. I don't recall them taking this plane before. The only team I've seen use it before is men's basketball.

This is better information than anything I compiled above.

Well that's not creepy at all

GAMEDAY

Gameday!

Three freshmen starting

Playing a 4 back, but I expect Lopez and Kolb to play up the outsides quite a bit

Offside
Offside
Offside
Over and over

Ref is very quick on the whistle so far.

This referee is really bad.

I like what I'm seeing from Laney

Ugggghhhhh. How'd she miss that one??

Ole Miss is giving us loads of space.

McCain HAS to make that! Or at the very least put it on frame

Not very sharp, no chemistry, indecisive, getting out hustled to balls, don't know how to stay on side... But not down a goal, so I think we're still in good shape

Well the Ags has a good chance to score. There were 1-2 clearly offsides from the Ags that you don't see but it's the first game of the season so expect a little rust.

I think Ali Russell or a freshman is gonna have to have a big year or we're not going to score many goals this year.