Double Trouble For Auburn Foes

One can forgive Auburn Universities opponents this fall if they think they are seeing double.
That would be the Ramsier twins. Casie and Brooke Ramsier are freshman for the Auburn Tigers. They are identical twin sisters from Dallas, TX.
They have been together always….as in ALWAYS! And they wanted to keep that relationship going when they began looking at colle- giate programs.
They may look alike, but there are a few differences. Casie is a forward, while Brooke plays in the midfield. Each has played in the Tigers’ first 17 games. Casie has started them all. Brooke has started seven times.
“We were worried a little bit early on,” Brooke said early in the season as she talked about the recruiting process. “We thought, ‘what if one of us was recruited by a different school?’ “What if we did not like the same school?’[show_to]
“But then we realized that that could not happen. We have been playing together for so long we need each other.”
Auburn made it easy. Tigers coach Karen Hoppa recruited them both.
The Texas Longhorns recruited them to stay in the Lone Star State, but after a trip to Auburn, they signed to become War Eagles.
“Auburn was saying that as they watched us more, they liked the both of us rather than just one,” said Brooke. We were really pumped and excited that they liked both of us.”
In an early season 3-0 win over the College of Charleston, each of the Ramsiers scored a goal.
“It was exciting, I was really happy,” said Casie about those two goals. “I was really happy when I scored mine, but when Brooke scored hers I was extremely happy because that was her first college career goal and I was really pumped for her.”
Through the first 17 games, Casie leads the Tigers in scoring with eight goals and three assists. She also is second in minutes played, six fewer than senior Maddie Barnes (McDonough, Ga.)
Barnes is one of only three seniors on the team, which is young with five sophomores and eight freshmen on the roster.
Casie was recently named the Southeastern Conference’s Freshman Player of the Week. She scored Auburn’s only goals in 1-1 double overtime conference ties against Tennessee and Missouri. Those followed a scoreless draw against Georgia, giving the Tigers three consecutive extra time games.
She also scored the Tigers’ first goal in a 3-1 win over the Arkansas Razorbacks. That was Auburn’s first SEC win of the season, leav- ing them 1-5-3 in the league with still a chance to advance to the SEC tournament.
The Tigers have two games left in the regular season, and will need to win both, and get some help, to advance. They play Vanderbilt at home and Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Only the top 10 teams in the 14-team league advance to the SEC tournament, which will be played Nov. 4-10 in Orange Beach, Ala.
The Tigers are peaking at the right time. Ar- kansas came into the last game with 11 wins and maybe their best team ever.
“We were really proud of our team,” Hoppa said after the win over the Razorbacks. “Arkansas is a great team. They had a lot of wins already and were aggressive in their attack, but I thought our team’s defense was outstanding.
“They did a great job keeping the ball in front of them. Our offensive did a particularly good job in the second half in keeping the pressure on them and off our backs.”