The Eastern New Mexico women’s soccer team is prepared for its final road tests of the regular season as the Hounds will travel to Denton, Texas on Friday to take on Texas Woman’s at 4 p.m. and Commerce, Texas on Sunday for an 11 a.m. match against Texas A&M-Commerce.
LAST TIME OUT
Eastern (6-5-1, 4-3-1 Lone Star Conference) came away with a split in their two home matches last week. The Hounds fell 2-1 to No. 17 West Texas A&M on Oct. 10, but managed to bounce back with a 2-0 victory over Midwestern State on Oct. 12.
Against the Lady Buffs, the Hounds played solid defense in the first half, limiting WTAMU to just one shot on-goal and three total shots. However, the Lady Buffs finally broke through in the second half with a goal at the 54-minute mark and another goal in the 75th minute to take a 2-0 advantage.
Eastern finally broke through in the 85th minute as junior forward Madison Luttrell made a 35-yard shot from the right side off a fantastic cross from sophomore defender Charlotte Collins-Blaize to cut the deficit to one, but couldn’t muster another shot in the remaining five minutes to complete the comeback.
In their match against Midwestern State, the Mustangs managed two shots in the first 13 minutes of the match, putting one on-goal, but the Hounds dominated MSU after that, not allowing a single shot for the remainder of the half. For nearly the entirety of the first half, the Hounds were limited to just one shot on-goal, however, Eastern finally broke through in the 44th minute. After having two shots that were saved by the keeper, junior forward Samantha Fabela managed to steal the ball and fire in a shot from the left side of goal box to give Eastern the 1-0 edge heading into the break.
Eastern controlled the pace once again in the second half and added one more goal for good measure. With just 20 seconds left remaining in the contest, junior midfielder Julia Tucker scored her first goal of the season off a Bailey Bosley assist for a two-goal victory.
SCOUTING THE PIONEERS
Texas Woman’s (7-5-2, 4-2-2 LSC) enters the contest in the No. 3 spot in the LSC with 14 points, just one ahead of the Greyhounds for that spot. The Pioneers are coming off a pair of victories last week, first defeating UT-Permian Basin 3-0 on Oct. 12 in Odessa, Texas and followed it up with a 2-0 win on Oct. 14 at Angelo State.
TWU has been playing well since their last match against ENMU, going 4-1-1 in the last three weeks. However, despite having some recent success, the Pioneers have struggled on their home turf. While Texas Woman’s possesses a 4-1-2 record on the road, they’re 3-4 on their home pitch and their last match at home was a 2-1 loss to Texas A&M-Commerce on Oct. 3.
The Pioneers possess one of the best defenses in the LSC, as TWU has only conceded 11 goals in their 14 matches, ranking second in the LSC with a 0.79 average and their 0.35 scoring margin ranks third.
Leading the TWU attack is sophomore forward Haley Ward, as she has scored half of her team’s goals this season with eight, tying her for third in the conference. Ward has taken the most shots of any player in the LSC with 66 shots, taking an average of 4.71 shots per contest and effectively placing 37 on-goal for a .561 percentage.
The Pioneers have received from strong play from their freshman goalkeeper Jazmine Maxwell. Since taking over the starting role in their fifth match, she has only allowed six goals in 10 matches for a 0.57 goals allowed average. Maxwell has also made 37 saves and has an .860 save percentage, placing her second in the LSC in both categories.
HISTORY WITH THE PIONEERS
Texas Woman’s leads the all-time series that started in 2003 with a 12-7-3 record. However, the Hounds have fared well in the series as of late with a 2-1-2 mark against the Pioneers since 2016.
The two teams met earlier this season in Portales on Sept. 23, playing to a scoreless draw after two overtime periods. Freshman goalkeeper Taylor Jackson pitched her second complete match shutout while tying a career-high eight saves in the contest.
In last season’s meeting in Denton, the Hounds scored an equalizer in the 82nd minute to eventually come away with a 1-1 draw.
SCOUTING THE LIONS
Texas A&M-Commerce (7-5, 4-4 LSC) comes into the week as the fifth-ranked team in the Lone Star with 12 conference points, just one back of the Hounds for the No. 4 spot. Last week, the Lions split their two matches, first falling 3-1 at Angelo State on Oct. 12 before coming away with a 2-0 victory on Oct. 14 at UT-Permian Basin.
After getting off to a slow start in conference play, losing three of their first four matches, TAMUC seems to have found their stride by winning three of their last four.
Commerce is a team that’s been scoring and giving up goals in high numbers, as they are currently third in the LSC with a 1.417 scoring average, however, they also rank third to last in goals allowed average, giving up 1.75 goals per contest.
The Lions feature a trio of solid goal scorers that rank in the top 10 within the conference. Senior forward Sabrina Munguia is the team-leader and the fifth-rated goal scorer in the conference with six goals. Junior midfielder Michelle Kotlik ranks right behind her with five goals and sophomore forward Leslie Campuzano is 10th in the Lone Star with three goals this season.
While Eastern will have to guard against a strong offense, the Hounds will look to push across some scores against TAMUC goalkeeper Caitlin Duty. Starting in all 12 matches for the Lions, Duty has conceded 21 goals, which ranks in a tie for last in the LSC and ranks third-to-last in goals allowed average at 1.718 and save percentage at .764.
HISTORY WITH THE LIONS
The Hounds are looking to erase some bitter history as the Lions lead the all-time series 20-1-1 dating back to 2003. However, Eastern has already started to turn a new leaf in the series.
When the two teams met earlier this season on Sept. 21 at Greyhound Stadium, the Hounds earned a 2-0 victory. After the Lions accidentally scored an own goal off an ENMU corner kick in the 25th minute, the Hounds added some insurance in the second half on a Kaitlyn Caro goal in the 81st minute.
The Hounds will be looking to avoid what happened in last season’s meeting in Commerce. In the Oct. 22, 2017 matchup, Eastern scored the first goal in the fourth minute to grab the early 1-0 advantage. However, the Hounds gave up the equalizer just a few minutes later at the 6:05 mark. After going into the half all knotted up, the Lions scored the game-winner in the 65th minute of the second half to hand the Hounds a tough 2-1 loss.
CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT BOUND
After picking up the 2-0 win against Midwestern State, the Hounds clinched a spot in the six-team Lone Star Conference Tournament. It is the fifth consecutive year that Eastern has qualified for the LSC Tournament. In last year’s tourney, the Hounds upset Midwestern State 4-0 in the first round match for their first ever LSC Tournament victory. Unfortunately, the Hounds fell 1-0 to Angelo State in the semi-final round to end their season.
PLAYOFF PICTURE
With just four regular season matches remaining, higher seeds for the conference tournament are still very much up for grabs. While West Texas A&M (12-1-1, 7-0-1 LSC) is close to locking up the No. 1 seed with 22 conference points, the second seed is still within striking distance for the Hounds. Currently, Angelo State (7-5-2, 5-2-1 LSC) with 16 points currently holds the spot, but Eastern is only three points back and Texas Woman’s with 14 points is just one point ahead of Eastern for the No. 3 seed. With the Hounds matching up with Pioneers on Friday and hosting Angelo State in their final home game next week, Eastern still has a chance to grab the second seed and a first round bye. Even if the Hounds cannot get the No. 2 seed, if Eastern can finish in the third or fourth spot in the conference, they’ll get the opportunity to host their first ever LSC Tournament match.
THAT’S A FIRST
Last week, a pair of Greyhounds scored their first career goals with ENMU. Luttrell and Tucker, who are in their first seasons with the Hounds, each scored a goal for their first in the ENMU program. Eastern has seen an overall balanced scoring attack this season as 11 different players have scored and no player has scored more than two goals for the Hounds this season.
FABOLOUS FABELA
After recording her second goal of the season last week, Fabela moved into a tie for the team-lead in both goals scored and points (6) with Bosley. Fabela currently leads the team with 34 shots taken this season with a team-leading 14 on-goal.
