Carroll and Oliveri have been a mess out there tonight. Our passing and possession continues to be pretty atrocious.

Vandy just showing more desire and want tonight

This has been the worst we've looked all season. No doubt. Aggies struggling to even complete a pass tonight.

It was a poor game for A&M tonight and probably our worst game of the season, including the Arkansas loss. We came out playing well early in the first 10 minutes with lots of box possession, however, it didn't result in any real chances on goal, which was a sign of things to come from an offensive standpoint. But Vandy adjusted to our style of play and struck first on a quick counter off a turnover when the backline was high up the field in the attack. The possession was about even for the rest of the first half and Kate Colvin came on for a struggling Olivieri and scored a great goal to equalize. In the second half the field really opened up as the box formation broke down completely (maybe by design?) but it didn't result in any real chances for A&M despite several good runs at goal. Vandy kept winning 50/50 balls and took advantage of an avalanche of A&M turnovers to eventually create the chances to win the game, scoring one goal on a good cross and then another in traffic when A&M couldn't clear the ball.

I hate to say it, but Vandy was clearly the better team tonight and I'm not sure the result would be any different a week from now. Their experience really showed in the second half, especially the two great seniors Konte (by far the best player on the field) and Hopkins. Vandy is a talented team and they are patient and wait for their chances. I have no idea what happened to them early in the season but they are the best team in the league right now and will be very dangerous in the NCAA tourney if they make it. I expect them to beat Arkansas for the title.

For the second straight game, A&M fell apart in the second half and looked gassed at times. There should have been many more substitutions to keep the legs fresh. There was no semblance of the box formation and the possessions lasted about 2-3 passes before turnovers ensued, instead of the usual 8-10 passes that would lead to chances on goal earlier this season. It was shocking to see so many unforced errors and passes to nowhere and communication nonexistent between teammates. I saw a lot of walking in the midfield. That is not the A&M team we watched for most of the season before this tourney began. Remember that we didn't play well against LSU either so this is now a trend line and a disappointing end to the Fall season. I don't know if the team is just tired or the freshman finally hit a wall after so much success, but we didn't respond very well when things started going sideways. Sometimes it's hard to regain momentum and rhythm in a match when your base formation breaks down and you get frustrated.

The biggest story of the tourney for A&M was the clear decline in the level of play from Olivieri. She was taken out midway through the first half for Colvin, who responded and scored our only goal. Her struggles continued in the second half with indecisive play and poor passes. She just doesn't look confident on the ball and isn't getting by defenders anymore. That leads to frustration and fouls and mentally she was out of the match. The coaches have been moving her back and forth from forward to midfield and that is probably not helping things. Let's hope it's just a freshman wall and she is ready to go in the Spring because we really need her to return to form if this team is going to be successful. But the rest of the midfield wasn't very good either. There were so many poor passes and bad decisions that it was just hard to watch. Very disjointed play and you could see the frustration building in the second half.

Offensively, Carroll has got to stop being offsides so much. It's getting ridiculous and it cost her a goal tonight (albeit on a close call by the side ref). She didn't wear a brace tonight and did seem a bit quicker, but her play remains ineffective overall and she's not really a threat to score right now. Vandy's defense (especially Konte) had a lot to do with it, but she's not the same player we saw a few months ago before her injury. To be fair Geczik was ineffective as well and didn't do much out there. A&M only had 4 shots tonight, 4! That is unbelievable for an offense that was on fire in the regular season. All the possession in the world doesn't matter much when you can't shoot the ball. The Vandy GK only had to make 1 save. That just won't get it done. And A&M doesn't have a lot of options right now, so Rheagan Smith opting out this season didn't help.

BTW, Konte is the best player I've seen all season in the SEC, period. Just utterly dominant on the ball and stopped literally every Aggie attack all night. She was the fastest player on the field and impossible to get around. She also helped in the attack and we couldn't tackle her at all. Just a really impressive player. Let's just hope she doesn't return next year.

One of A&M's biggest problems the last few games was its inability to get wide and cross the ball into dangerous areas of the box. Lopez had very few looks at goal outside of corner kicks and I don't remember Kolb making any good runs down the flank the entire match. When we were playing well a few weeks ago, there were a barrage of crosses and opportunities for shots in the box.

A&M had 15 fouls and 3 yellow cards in the match. That is just absurd and it's not Aggie soccer. The team got frustrated and stopped playing the game the way we've played all season. There was a lot of late tackles and diving in on balls that were never going to be won, so mentally the team was not a good space tonight. They didn't look like they were having much fun out there either.

Defensively, it was a rough night at times. There were poor clearances and multiple marking mistakes, especially on the winning goal when Kolb just watched Hopkins run in front of her for the easy put away header. Sample was okay but also beaten badly for Vandy's first goal. I did think Katie Smith had a nice game shutting down multiple runs by the Vandy speedy forwards. And Caldwell could have come off her line faster on the first goal, although the other two goals were not her fault. I do think the abysmal play in the midfield put the back line under pressure all night.

The SEC tournament is becoming a sore point for the program as A&M is now just 1-3 in the last 3 years after winning it in 2017. We just haven't shown up to play at our best in this tourney lately and it's frustrating. A&M has had a better than expected season overall and won a share of the SEC title mainly due to great chemistry and a group of freshmen playing beyond their years, so it's ironic that those are the reasons we didn't play well the last two games. Unfortunately, we don't play another match until the Spring and we might have seen the last of Lopez in an Aggie uniform. I don't know what McCain and Ziemer will do but we really need them both to return to have success in the Spring and NCAA tournament. The coaches will need to continue to tinker with this formation and lineup and get Carroll going again to see if we can be more consistent up front if we are going to have success in the NCAA tournament.

Excellent summary of the game. Sadly, telling us one team had 15 fouls and 3 yellow cards told us which team won -- this team's opponent.

Thanks for taking the time to provide us with an excellent summary of the game along with your thoughtful evaluations and assessments. Excellent!

I believe we had a successful fall season. We were predicted to finish third but finished second in total points.

Preseason Coaches' Poll Rankings followed by each teams' total points in SEC season games.

1. Arkansas . . . . . . . . . . .18
3. Texas A&M . . . . . . . . 15
7. Tennessee . . . . . . . . . 13
2. South Carolina . . . . . 12
4. Vanderbilt . . . . . . . . . . .9
12. Missouri . . . . . . . . . . . 9
9. Georgia . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
11. Mississippi State . . . . 8
10. Auburn . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
8. Mississippi . . . . . . . . . . 6
6. Alabama . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
13. Kentucky . . . . . . . . . . .5
14. LSU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
5. Florida . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4