HOUSTON – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi soccer team earned a point in the first match of its Southland Conference slate on Thursday evening, going on the road and playing to a scoreless draw against Houston Christian in what was a evenly-fought contest throughout.
"I'm really happy with the performance tonight," head coach
Daniel Clitnovici said. "The team showed great resilience. We faced a very organized HCU team who tested us in specific areas of their game, but we did really well in those moments and stood strong."
Coming out looking to strike early, the Islanders (2-4-3, 0-0-1 SLC) controlled the pace of play for much of the opening 45 minutes, winning the possession battle and totaling five shots with two on goal against just three shots and none on target from the Huskies (5-4-1, 0-0-1 SLC) over the course of the first half. The first chances of the night came courtesy of sophomore
Cilia Leal, who made the first significant run of the game and sent a shot just wide of the right side of the goal in the fifth minute and followed that up with another in the 18
th that ended in a save from HCU's keeper. After the initial flurry, the visitors had one more promising opportunity in the 34
th minute, coming when redshirt senior
Madison Page made a run of her own on the right side and sent a shot just across the mouth of the goal that narrowly gave the team the lead.
The second half saw HCU ramp up its aggressiveness on the offensive end, but their advances were kept in check by redshirt senior goalkeeper
Hayven Harrison, who tallied four saves in just a 10-minute span to keep the score all knotted up. During this stretch, Harrison sent back a shot on a one-on-one breakaway just a minute into the second half and then saved two in quick succession soon after, including one that came on a try from just outside the box that she was able to reach on a dive to her left side.
The closest that both teams got to putting one in the back of the net came during the final stretch of the night. First up was a near miss by the Huskies, who in the 83
rd minute sent a shot that ricocheted off the bottom part of the crossbar and down just in front of the goal line in position for a clearance to end the threat. The Islanders came equally as close in the last minute, with freshman
Sophia Dias attempting a deep try that bounced off the top of the woodwork and over the net to just narrowly miss what would have been the game-winning goal.
Individually, the star of the show was Harrison, who recorded her third shutout of the season to bring her into a tie for second place in the conference so far this year. Offensively, Leal led the way with four total shots, while freshman
MyJoi Anderson put up two to join her attacking counterpart as the Islanders players to record multiple on the day.
"This is a tough place to come and play, so getting a clean sheet on the road here is positive," Clitnovici said. "We showed up for 90 minutes, and that's important for us. I'm very proud of the group tonight."
The Islanders will now return back to Corpus Christi for their next match of conference play, coming home to the Dr. Jack Dugan Family Soccer and Track Stadium to host Nicholls next Thursday at 7 p.m.
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