By Cavender Neutze

Survive and advance.

In the first round of the 2014 NCAA tournament, the Aggies did more than that; they thrived to the tune of 5-0.

The Aggies came out aggressive and overpowered Houston Baptist from the word go. After a good look from Karlie Mueller set the tone, an Annie Kunz touch pass to Kelley Monogue, perfectly set up Kelley and let her finish it into the right side of the net. Monogue liked the way the defense had set up around her, “I saw Annie turning in the box and yelled for her. It’s really hard to defend running back to goal. I just had to one time it in. It was a perfect ball from Annie.”

After that, the team exploded.

Kelley had a beautiful stinger from the left side of the box in the 11th minute that skirted past the diving keeper into the right side of the net. 2-0 Aggies and they were not even close to being done.

The next goal, however, would not be as clean. Shea Groom took a shot in the 23rd minute, it eventually served as a pass to Annie who dished it around the Huskies goal keeper to Allie Bailey who made it a 3 score ballgame.

The Aggies didn’t score again until the 55th minute, but the fourth goal was an exhibit of passing art at its finest. After working the ball downfield from sideline to sideline, Shea Groom took control and set up Bianca Brinson for a one timer from four yards out. Coach Guerrieri praised his teams selflessness, “I would say a dozen or more passes went into that sequence. To open up a team that is playing as deep as they were, you have to make an extra pass. I think we used two or three extra ones in that sequence to beat the scorer.”

Annie Kunz spoke further about the team’s ability to pass open a shot; “We’ve really been working on that in practices, possession in the final third, not forcing shots and working it inside. Really creating good opportunities for goals and I feel like we did a good job of it tonight.” Her fellow senior, Shea Groom created her own opportunity with a stolen ball and a sliding finish from eight yards out to score the games final goal.

While the outcome was decided fairly early tonight, Coach Guerrieri touched on just how competitive Houston Baptist played them. “They’ve earned the opportunity to play in this tournament, something a lot of great players and teams do not get the chance to do, so hats off to them for not rope-a-doping and coming out and giving us their best shot."

The Aggies can certainly expect every team’s best punch from here on out, starting with Arizona next Friday night at Ellis Field for the second round of the NCAA Tournament.