Texas A&M
FRESNO STATE
Aggie Riders Open Season with 11-8 Win over Fresno State
Oct 11, 2009 | Equestrian
Oct. 11, 2009
BRYAN, Texas - The fifth-ranked Texas A&M equestrian team opened the season in style with an 11-8 victory over No. 9 Fresno State Sunday afternoon at the Brazos County Expo Complex.
The Aggies (1-0) claimed three of the four possible MVP honors in the disciplines as they won the season-opening show for the fourth consecutive season. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, fell to 1-2.
"We are off to a good start," head coach Tana McKay said. "We are about right where we need to be heading into a couple of tough back-to-back road competitions in the SEC. We have some rusty spots we need to take care of, but the ladies are in the proper frame of mind to learn and take care of cleaning up some things."
Senior Lindsay Smith (West Friendship, Md.) claimed the first most valuable rider honor of the afternoon and the year with an impressive 86-70 victory over Fresno State junior Holly Elsbernd in equitation over fences.
Completing the hunter seat MVP sweep for A&M was senior Christina Heine (Toledo, Ohio), thanks to an 82-76 defeat of FSU sophomore Nicole Roworth in equitation of the flat. Aggie sophomore Hannah Soibelman (Evergreen, Colo.) provided the hunter seat riders some big punch by posting a 24-point win over Bulldog freshman Lanie Madrazo in the same discipline.
"Both of our MVP riders are seniors and this is a neat way to begin their final seasons," hunter seat coach Linzy Woolf said. "We have a young squad, but this is a solid start. We had some young people perform well in their exhibition rides."
On the western side, senior Caroline Gunn (Greensburg, Ind.) propelled the Aggies in the horsemanship discipline as she rode to a 76-68 win over Bulldog sophomore Kelsi Fischer.
Fresno State senior Keri Blackledge claimed her squad's lone MVP honor, which came in the reining discipline on the last ride of the day.
"This is a good start for our horsemanship riders," horsemanship coach Beth Bass said. "It was good to perform well at our first home competition, and now we have a large test with back-to-back shows against good SEC teams."
The Aggies will take to the road for those critical shows against a pair of SEC powers this weekend. A&M will face third-ranked Auburn (3-1) on Friday at 3 p.m. at the Auburn Equestrian Center before battling No. 4 Georgia (1-1) on Sunday at 1 p.m. at High Point Farm in Bishop, Ga.
Players Mentioned
