Georgia women’s soccer wins SEC opener at Texas A&M

The Georgia Bulldogs women’s soccer team entered conference play riding a five-game winning streak, pushing their record to 6-2.

The Bulldogs closed non-conference play with a 2-0 victory on Senior Day against South Florida. The winning streak also includes a dominant 7-0 victory over Kennesaw State, which saw the Bulldogs improve to 37-1-3 versus in-state competition in the history of Georgia soccer.

The Southeastern Conference schedule is a rugged slate, with the conference having five teams ranked in the top 25, and two inside the top 11. On Friday night, the Bulldogs traveled to College Station, Texas, to take on Texas A&M for the first time since 2018. In College Station, the Bulldogs earned their first conference opening road win since 2006 with a 3-2 victory over Texas A&M.

Off the rebound from a corner kick, Bulldogs’ freshman defender Cate Hardin guided the ball passed the outstretched arms of the Aggie goalkeeper to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead in the seventh minute. The Georgia lead quickly evaporated in the 15th minute as the Aggies scored off a corner kick from Taylor Pounds to tie the game at one. In the 23rd minute, the early scoring continued as Georgia retook the lead 2-1, as Wisconsin transfer Joyelle Washington scored her third goal of the season off an assist from Mountain View grad Daisa Torbert.

In a wild end to the first half, Texas A&M converted on a cross into the box to tie the game at two with just under eight minutes to go in the first half. The two teams went into the locker room deadlocked at two. Defense ruled the second half, but with just over 21 minutes left in the game, Dasia Torbert converted a cross from Tori Penn to give Georgia 3-2 lead quieting the Aggie faithful at Ellis Field.

Georgia continued to apply pressure. Bulldogs’ goalkeeper Liz Beardsley made an improbable save to redirect a Texas A&M shot off the crossbar with six minutes left in the game Beardsley’s save would preserve the 3-2 victory. Postgame, Georgia head coach Keidane McAlpine spoke on the team’s mental toughness, McAlpine said “mentally we have some toughness to us, we have some grit to us. We haven’t had to do this a lot so far this season, this was a great moment for us to learn about ourselves and find a way to stay together. This was everything we needed from our team to be able to grow.”

The Bulldogs will continue to rely on that mental toughness throughout the season. The road doesn’t get easier as Georgia returns home on Thursday, September 22 to host No. 5 South Carolina. The action begins at 7 p.m. on SEC Network Plus.

Tony Walsh