CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Getting not just her season but her career off on the right foot, freshman
Cilia Leal netted her first-ever in Texas A&M-Corpus Christi soccer team's season opener as the program tied with North Dakota 1-1 Thursday night at the Dr. Jack Dugan Soccer and Track & Field Stadium.
Leal holds the honor on being the first Islander to score in the 2024 season, coming in as a freshman. She is the fourth freshman in program history to have scored the first game of the year, but first to do so since the 2018 season.
It came after a quick start for the Islanders (0-0-1) as Leal chipped it in at the five-minute mark off a redirect header from senior
Rachel Loetzer after senior
Morgan Westbury sent it to the box on a corner kick. The Islanders seemingly controlled the first half, outshooting North Dakota 10-7 including six coming on goal. They also held a 51% edge in possession through the first 45 minutes.
"The staff and I are really proud of the ladies tonight, we've come a long way in the last 15 days," said first-year head coach
Daniel Clitnovici. "Although we didn't get the result we wanted, we did get better in many different areas of the game tonight and they came up big.
"We had a really strong first half and we enjoyed much of the control of the game. The team stuck to the game plan and it was working. Unfortunately, we couldn't match it in the second half and let [North Dakota] back in. It is a testament to North Dakota: they deserved the goal they got after putting us under a lot of pressure in the second half," said Clitnovici.
North Dakota (0-0-1) was able to score the equalizer in the 74
th minute after senior
Zoe Theriot was able to stave off the Fighting Hawks in the first half entirely. Theriot recorded 11 saves on the night, beating her previous career high of 10 back on October 10, 2023 against Lamar.
"I thought Zoe in goal gave us really strong moments, she is a strong goalkeeper and when she plays well, we as a team grow in confidence," Clitnovici said.
It was the first-ever matchup between the two programs, as the two remain evened in the head-to-head following the tie.
Westbury and Loetzer were both credited with an assist on A&M-Corpus Christi's goal. It marks Westbury's first assist since the 2022 season when she broke the program record for most assists in a season by a sophomore (3). She and junior
Mai-Lisa Atis led the team with three shots each on the night with two of the latter's coming on goal.
Photos from the game can be viewed
here.
The Islanders will get another chance to secure their first win under first-year head coach Clitnovici back at home on Sunday at 1 p.m. against Tarleton State.
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