Texas A&M continued their success in front of the 12th man this past weekend during the Texas A&M Invitational when they defeated Rutgers 4-1 Friday before a late goal Sunday beat St. Mary's 1-0.

Rutgers had entered the weekend with a 4-0 record with its most notable victory over Ohio State. However, the Scarlet Knights simply could not keep up with the unrelenting Aggies who pressed high and attacked with vigor.  

"They came in here undefeated. They're nationally ranked. We respected them a lot coming in because of the talent they had on their team. It just happened to be a good night for us," head coach G. Guerrieri said.

Texas A&M vs. St. Mary's

Rutgers scored first off a corner kick in the 24th minute when Amanda Devolk sent the ball past TAMU sophomore goalkeeper Jordan Day. Instead of being frustrated by the fact that TAMU dominated early on and allowed in the opportunity, the Aggies continued their onslaught and tied the match just four minutes later when sophomore Kelley Monogue put away a rebound off a Rachel Lenz shot.

Monogue, the 2011 Big-12 Offensive Player of the Year, continues to come on for the Aggies off the bench and plays more and more each game as she returns from her ACL injury suffered in the Spring. In her 40 minutes clocked Friday, she put away two rebounds now leading the team in scoring with three goals. With her two goals, the Aggies entered halftime with the lead 2-1.

"Just before the game we talked about how we wanted to put a high pressure on their defense. We watched film on them and I think that the high pressure put them in an uncomfortable position so that helped us a lot offensively,"  Monogue said.

The majority of the Aggies offense that lead the nation in scoring in 2011 returned for the 2012 campaign with the additional return of speedy sophomore Shea Groom on the flank. Groom missed most of her freshman season due to injury and provides that endline threat that can tee up Monogue inside the box.

Sophomore Annie Kunz also continues to score for the Aggies, netting the final goal in the Rutgers match while sophomore Allie Bailey put away a penalty kick and the gamewinner versus St. Mary's.

The Aggies outshot the Gaels 28-5, but struggled to get past goalkeeper Khayla Jones who tallied nine saves in the match. It wasn't until the 83rd minute when junior midfielder Jayne Eadie tenaciously pressured the goal with not one shot but two after getting her own rebound. However, it was Bailey who framed the goal nicely to redirect Eadie's second shot into the back of the net. Bailey earned tournament MVP honors for her efforts in both matches.

"We're excited. We didn't start off too great, but we're getting to where we want to be. We're getting better in all phases of the game. We're controlling the game. We're passing better. We're getting our shots on goal. We just want to win," TAMU captain Eadie said.

A large reason why TAMU consistently has numbers going forward is the change to three in the back with sophomore Meghan Streight pushing forward into the center of the midfield.

"One thing we can definitely take away from  today's game is the defensive play. Rachel Lenz and Jackie Tondl did a good job of keeping them from getting good passes through the back line," Guerrieri said.  "We trusted the defense which allowed us to bring more players up on the attack later in the game."

Trusting the backline has been a theme for the Aggies this season as most of their experience lays with Lenz and senior Lyndsey Gnatzig, both quality 1v1 defenders. The two earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team alongside Streight, Monogue, Bailey, and goalkeeper Day.

The Aggies' defense will face arguably their toughest competition yet when they face Long Beach State and 2011 Big West Offensive Player of the Year forward Nadia Link Friday in College Station at 6:00 pm before wrapping up the weekend against Central Michigan Sunday at 1:30 pm.

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