COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The SEC Western Division Champion Texas A&M Soccer team will play five matches, all at Ellis Field, throughout the spring season, head coach G Guerrieri announced on Tuesday.

"The spring semester is an important time of the year for the Aggie soccer program," Guerrieri said. "This is the time of year when we really have a great opportunity to concentrate on the technical, physical, and tactical development of our individual players. We believe that all those championship trophies we've picked up in the fall seasons were actually won because of the developmental work we performed with our student-athletes in our spring 'non-traditional' season."

The Aggies, who started spring practice sessions on Tuesday, will play their first match against Houston on Saturday, Feb. 9 at 7 pm. One week later, on Saturday, Feb. 16 A&M hosts Austin Nationals at 7:30 pm.

The final three matches will be played in March with tilts against Baylor (3/2), Rice (3/24) and Sam Houston State (3/28).

The Aggies advanced to their 18th straight NCAA Division I Championship in 2012 after winning their first SEC Western Division title in November. The team defeated Stephen F. Austin at home and Oakland in Tallahassee to advance to the Sweet 16. The season ended with a loss at Florida State in the regional semifinal. A&M finished with a 19-5-1 record and the 19 wins were tied for the second-most in school history.

"The NCAA limits us in travel and to not miss any class time during the non-traditional season, so we have worked to find competitive college games from teams in our region of the country," Guerrieri said. "These spring exhibitions will be a great chance for our fans to see the development of our young players and get into Ellis Field to see some good college games for free."

Admission to each game this spring is free. For the most up-to-date schedule information, log on to AggieAthletics.com.