CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – First-year head coach
Daniel Clitnovici finally got his first win at the helm as the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi soccer team took down Sam Houston 2-1 Sunday at the Dr. Jack Dugan Family Soccer and Track & Field Stadium.
The Islanders (1-0-2) remain undefeated in the commencing era of Clitnovici, who celebrated his first win following the 2-1 victory over Sam Houston. It was helped with a pair of second-half goals coming from senior
Rachel Loetzer and junior
Mai-Lisa Atis. Loetzer has scored in both of the last two meetings with the Bearkats after also scoring in last year's 2-2 tie.
After the teams headed to the locker room at the half deadlocked at 0-0, Loetzer broke the silence in the 57
th minute with a chip-in to the top left corner following the perfectly placed free kick from sophomore
Emmie Barton, who was credited with the assist. It gave Loetzer her seventh career goal and Barton just her second ever career assist.
Atis added some insurance in the 79
th minute after she made quick work of a throw-in and sent a bullet to the net from beyond the 18 for the 2-0 advantage.
Sam Houston (2-1-1) tried rallying with a goal in the 85
th minute, but the Islanders defense shut them down through the final five to come away with the first win of the season. It handed the Bearkats their first loss of the year after they were coming off a two-win streak over Houston and HCU.
The Bearkats outshot the Islanders 20-8, though the latter squad proved more effective in their attempts. Senior
Zoe Theriot, the reigning SLC Goalkeeper of the Week, added eight saves to her season total of 22 now, ranking her top-three among Southland Conference goalies.
It marks A&M-Corpus Christi's first win over the Bearkats since 2018 when they won 1-0 at home in overtime and second-ever. Sam Houston still holds a 6-2-2 edge in the all-time record between the programs.
Photos of the game can be viewed
here.
Looking to keep the momentum high, the Islanders will finish out a four-game homestand Thursday against Abilene Christian at 7 p.m. before finally hitting the road to UTEP on Sept. 5.
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