COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M soccer team signed five student-athletes to national letters of intent, head coach G Guerrieri announced Wednesday.

Janae Cousineau (San Clemente, Calif.), Karlie Mueller (Sioux Falls, S.D.), Kristi Leonard (League City, Texas), Jackie Tondl (Omaha, Neb.) and Britt Blackwell (Grapevine, Texas) will join the Aggie soccer team for the 2011 season.

“It is great to have this talented group of soccer players signed to play at Texas A&M in 2012,” Head coach G Guerrieri said. “All of our coaches are excited about the great skills and potential each of these five players brings to the Aggie soccer program. Even though this class is only half the number of our 2011 class, we’re hopeful that it can be just as impactful.

“This is a group of excellent students who understand the academic challenges and opportunities that Texas A&M University offers. Each student-athlete comes from a culture of solid academic and athletic standards. Each young lady comes from a wonderful family and I know these players will fit in perfectly with the rest of our Aggie soccer family because they’ve been raised to be great students, teammates, and members of their communities.

“As you look at these players you’ll surely notice how we’ve tried to bring in players who could compete quickly at the highest levels - in our everyday competitive training environment, and also in our Aggie line-up as we compete with the other top teams in America every week.

“We have graduated some incredible players following another championship season for A&M in 2011 and we will return a very talented, deep, and experienced team for the 2012 season. So we were looking for players in this class who were special and could compete for Texas A&M right away.

“This five-player class includes three very special multi-dimensional players (Karlie Mueller, Janae Cousineau, and Britt Blackwell) who can immediately make us better in a number of places, one proto-typical central defender (Jackie Tondl), and a dangerous left-sided attacking player (Kristi Leonard).

“One of the common denominators of the students in this signing class is their propensity to win at everything they do. As a team, we are judged by how many games we win. So, I feel it’s very important that the players on our roster have a historical habit and a burning desire to win and to find every way possible to keep improving throughout their careers so that we forever win at Texas A&M. These young ladies are winners on the field and in the classroom. Each of these student-athletes has a history of positively affecting their teammates to win games and championships.

“I know this group of players will be able to help us immediately. They will make us more talented in attack and defense and I think they will help us to be a very competitive team as we move into a new chapter in our program’s history as members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).”