CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Serving as the host institution for the 2023 Southland Conference Championship, the fifth-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi soccer program will take-on fourth-seeded Northwestern State at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Dugan Stadium.
A&M-Corpus Christi and Northwestern State finished the regular season in a three-way tie for fourth-place along with Southeastern with 13 points. After tiebreakers, the Lady Demons landed at No. 4 and the Islanders at No. 5. It's an improvement from last year where A&M-Corpus Christi placed sixth in the regular season.
"This is going to be a great game between two teams who play a very fun passing style of soccer," said head coach
Craig Shaw.
The Islanders enter the tournament seeking their first championship in program history. Their deepest tournament run was to the semifinals in 2019.
Both A&M-Corpus Christi and Northwestern State each garnered an All-Conference selection as junior midfielder
Rachel Loetzer represented the Islanders and sophomore forward Taylor Spitzer for the Lady Demons. It was Loetzer's second year in a row earning All-Conference after tallying six goals, two assists and 14 points in two seasons.
Sophomore
Mai-Lisa Atis is the team's leading scorer with four goals on the year. She's one of 11 Islanders to find the back of the net including senior
Maggie Murray, junior
Megan Guy and Loetzer with three apiece. A&M-Corpus Christi has mixed and matched its lineups all season with the omission of nine student-athletes out due to injury.
Junior defender
Emma Crump has logged a team-high 1,416 minutes. She's one of four Islanders to play over 1,000 minutes this season including graduate
Olivia Hughes with 1,093, Atis with 1,064 and senior
Molly Arens with 1,056.
A&M-Corpus Christi has flip-flopped goalkeeping duties between senior
Kennedy Stelling and junior
Zoe Theriot. Stelling got the start in the last game against McNeese but the total starts are nearly even with Theriot at 10 and Stelling eight.
The winner of Wednesday's match will advance to the SLC semifinals to meet top-seeded Lamar at 7 p.m. Friday at Dugan Stadium.
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