Sept. 28, 2007
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Columbia, Mo. -
The 16th-ranked University of Missouri women's soccer team (7-2-0, 1-0-0 Big 12) defeated the 4th-ranked Texas A&M Aggies (6-2-1, 0-1-0 Big 12), 3-2, Friday night at a packed Walton Stadium. Mizzou played in front of 1,545 fans, the third-highest crowd to watch a Tiger soccer game.
The game between the two top-20 teams would be close until literally the final minute, and the 16th-ranked Tigers came out on top, with a familiar player scoring the game-winning goal.
With the score tied at 2-2 in the second overtime, Tiger sophomore Kristin Andrighetto, who made last week's Soccer America Team of the Week, scored the game-winner to give the Tigers their first conference win of the season, seventh of the year and fifth at home.
Midfielder Mo Redmond started the play off, when she passed the ball ahead to Andrighetto, who was running down the middle of the field. Andrighetto gathered it, dribbled a couple of times and shot it to the left of Aggie goalkeeper Kristin Arnold for her team-leading eighth goal of the season. Andrighetto scored the goal with just 34 seconds remaining in the second, and last, overtime period.
"The game showed how solid our team is, and how we stuck through it the entire way," Tiger Head Coach Bryan Blitz said. "They are obviously the best team we have played so far. They are the standard for Big 12 Conference play."
The game got off to a somewhat slow start, with neither team taking a shot until the 10th minute, when A&M forward Ashlee Pistorius put a shot on goal that was saved by MU goalkeeper Mallory Forst.
The Tigers would then begin shooting, at one stretch outshooting the Aggies, 7-3. Two of those shots, both taken by Andrighetto, were very close to going in. In the 18th minute she hit one off the post, and just about ten minutes later, she knocked one off the crossbar.
Those close chances would not go in, keeping the score, 0-0, until the 34th minute, when A&M's Elisabeth Jones scored her first of the season to give the Aggies a 1-0 lead.
The Tigers would come back, though, just more than three minutes later, when Forst hit a free kick that was headed by Mizzou freshman Krista Kruse at about mid field. It skipped ahead to another freshman, Kari Adam, who gathered it and put it past Arnold for the first goal of her career, which tied the game at 1-1. The score would stay at 1-1 through halftime.
Pistorious, last week's Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week, scored less than ten minutes into the second half to give the Aggies a one-goal lead once again.
But after the goal, the Tigers out-shot the Aggies, 6-1. The sixth shot turned out to be Adam's second goal of the night. Mizzou defender Crystal Wagner started the play off by hitting a clearance about 40 yards towards A&M's end. Adam chased it down, gathered it, and took a shot from about 25 yards out. It snuck past Arnold to tie the game once again, this time at 2-2.
The tie would hold until the last minute of the game, when Andrighetto scored the game-winner.
The Tigers will fly to Texas to take on Baylor Sunday (Sept. 30) at 1 p.m. The Bears tied Kansas, 2-2, in their first conference match Friday (Sept. 28), to remain unbeaten in their last five games at home. Baylor is 6-2-2 overall and 0-0-1 in the Big 12. Gametracker and live audio available at baylorbears.com ... Mizzou's next home weekend is Oct. 12 and 14, when the Tigers host Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. OSU is currently ranked as high as 13th in the Soccer America Top 25 poll. Their high ranking might be short-lived, however, as they lost their conference opener to Iowa State, 3-0, in Ames Friday (Sept. 28).
Notes:
This A&M team is the highest-ranked team the Tigers have beaten since 2003, when Mizzou defeated then-No. 4 Texas A&M, 5-4, Oct. 19, 2003, in overtime, in Columbia.
The Tigers are 16th in this week's SoccerTimes.com poll. A&M is fourth. The Aggies are ranked as high as third in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America/adidas Top 25 poll.
