Texas A&M
TCU
Aggie Riders Continue Perfect Fall Slate with Win Over No. 6 TCU
Nov 15, 2008 | Equestrian
Nov. 15, 2008
BRYAN - The second-ranked Texas A&M equestrian team earned a hard fought 12-8 decision over sixth-ranked Texas Christian at the Brazos County Expo Complex on Saturday.
The Aggies won the hunter seat discipline, 7-4, while A&M's western squad won a tight battle between the last two national championship victors, 5-4. The Aggies also earned three of the four most valuable rider awards handed out for the day.
"It's always going to be an extremely difficult and tough competition when you are facing the reigning national champions in anything," A&M head coach Tana McKay said. "They had a lot of returning riders that we saw last year that are obviously excellent riders and we also knew some of their younger riders have a lot of talent as well. They have a lot of talent across the board. For us to be successful and beat them really means a lot and proves we are on the right track."
After a less-than-perfect result a week ago at Oklahoma State, A&M's equitation on the flat riders completely shifted the momentum of the match in a positive direction, taking a two-point deficit and turning it into a two-point cushion and thus giving the Aggie reiners the opportunity to seal the deal.
With the Aggies down 7-5 and facing a Saturday-best flat score of 83 in the face, freshman Hannah Soibelman (Evergreen, Colo.), competing at home for the first time in her collegiate career, turned in one of the best flat rides in A&M's varsity history to begin a big momentum shift back in the home team's favor. Soibelman hung the Aggies' second best flat score of the season, 86.5, on the board and in doing so grabbed her first career MVP honor.
Soibelman's win set off a chain reaction of four straight flat wins as A&M romped to a 5-1 decision in the discipline to re-take the overall lead, 9-7. Junior Christina Heine (Toledo, Ohio) followed up Soibelman's win with a 69-68.5 escape of TCU's Milana Trimino. Senior Tegan Zealy (Tampa, Fla.) and co-captain Brittney Dodson (Amarillo) took the ball and ran with it, grabbing sizable 81-72.5 and 80-67 victories, respectively, to close out the flat portion of the show. Senior Christina Matz (McKinney) earned a high-scoring victory to begin the flat competition, 83-81, over Horned Frog Tassie Munroe.
With a two-point cushion in the overall point race and a 3-2 deficit in the western competition to deal with, the A&M reining group went to work. Co-captain Genna Fishgold (Scottsdale, Ariz.) picked a great time to earn her first win of the season, 68.5-66.5 over TCU's Ashton Mickunas, to push the overall advantage over TCU to three and deadlock the western score at 3-3.
After A&M dropped the third reining match, sophomore Tara Christiansen (Snohomish, Wash.) quickly tied the western team race back up while clinching the overall victory for A&M. Christiansen continued her perfect season (4-0) with a 69.5-64.5 win over TCU's Jennifer Neel.
Junior Leah Ward (Terrell) gave A&M's western team its first lead of the entire day in the competition's penultimate match-up with her 67.5-65.5 victory over Horned Frog Courtney Chown. With the western match in the balance, TCU senior Chloe Baker was awarded a score of 69, which tied Aggie junior Maggie Gratny's (Leavenworth, Kan.) earlier score, thus giving A&M a 5-4 victory in the battle of the last two collegiate national champion western squads.
"Reining came down to the last few rides and they dealt with that pressure extremely well," McKay said. "We have been working on fine tuning a lot of little things lately. They really stepped up to the plate. We still had a couple of little errors but they are riding the best I've seen in a while."
Despite dropping both the horsemanship and equitation over fences competitions, there were several bright spots for the Aggies. Horsemanship national champion Caroline Gunn (Greensburg, Ind.) earned her second victory and second MVP award of the year in a 74-72.5 win over Courtney Chown. Freshman Katie Lisabeth (Canton, Ga.) moved to 2-0 in her young collegiate career with a 72.5-72 horsemanship win over TCU's Kelly Morris
Over fences, junior Kristi Waldal (Battle Ground, Wash.) earned the first MVP award of her career, turning in a season-best score in an 84-81 win over TCU freshman Victoria Lee. Senior Erin Ivy (Cypress) earned the Aggies' other fence triumph, a 66-61 win over Horned Frog sophomore Tassie Munroe.
In exhibition action, sophomore Claire Plemmons (Salinas, Calif.) won her reining match while freshmen Cailey Dreyer (Merritt Island, Fla.) and Jackie O'Connell (Saunderstown, R.I.) won their horsemanship and fence match-ups, respectively.
The Aggies will finish off their three-week stretch of competitions, as well as their fall schedule, with a big road match-up against No. 4 Baylor on Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Willis Family Equestrian Center in Waco.
Players Mentioned
