CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Facing a late penalty in a potential game-winner, senior
Zoe Theriot of the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi soccer team punched it out as they ended in a tie with Texas Southern 1-1 Wednesday night at the Dr. Jack Dugan Family Soccer and Track Stadium.
It was the nonconference finale for the Islanders (3-2-3) and ended up being a highly contested battle with the Tigers (1-7-1) after the two met the game previous in Houston last week. It is the first-ever tie between the two, as the Islanders hold the 7-0-1 edge after defeating the Tigers last week 2-0.
"Tonight was a good experience for us because we faced a really determined Texas Southern team that came here to win the game. Credit to Texas Southern's head coach Kendall Ayers, she set up her team really well and they deserved what they got," said head coach
Daniel Clitnovici.
After Texas Southern squeaked in a goal in the first half, the Islanders headed to the locker room down at the break before coming out firing as senior
Morgan Westbury scored the equalizer in the 48th minute. Making work of a quick throw in, freshman
Alisa Divano chipped it into the box where Westbury waited for the high right footer into the top left of the net.
The teams went scoreless from there in a testy back-and-forth with the Islanders taking shots that were just missing off the crossbar. Then, in the first penalty seen this season, Theriot was tasked with eyeing down the kicker who got the chance in the box at the 85
th minute. She went left and punched it out for the save to keep the game knotted at 1-1 as the night eventually winded down for the final draw to remain intact.
Westbury is now on a three-game scoring streak and becomes the first Islander with 3+ goals on the year. Tonight's goal also helped her move into team-lead with eight points on the year.
Divano is now the team leader in assists on the season as the first-year has assisted on three goals so far. It included a pair in the 5-1 victory over Prairie View in the last home game for the Islanders.
"We came close to scoring many times tonight, it's not often you hit the crossbar and post four times in a game, but it's fall for us tonight. It's part of the process but overall we didn't do enough to win the game and we need to accept that, grow from it, and move onto the next game," said Clitnovici.
The Islanders will look to the SLC slate now, and first welcome in HCU for the conference opener at home on Sunday at 1 p.m.
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