BEAUMONT, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi soccer team could not pull off the upset against conference-leading Lamar in its match on Thursday evening, playing tight early but fading in the second half and dropping by a final score of 3-0.
Despite the final result, it was the Islanders (4-8-4, 1-5-2 SLC) that came out firing from the opening whistle, attempting four shots in the first eight minutes of the night before the Cardinals (8-2-4, 5-1-1 SLC) got off their first. Included in this was a narrow miss off the foot of
Katie Porter, which came on a free kick from the far side of the field that whizzed just a few inches above the crossbar. Near the midpoint of the half, the forward again nearly found the back of the net, making a run into the box from a similar spot as before and sending a dangerous try across the goal mouth but just wide.
Lamar started to get its offense going more after this, but the hosts were kept off the board by A&M-Corpus Christi keeper
Addie Brown, who made a trio of saves as time ticked down to bring things into the break with no score. The first of these was perhaps her best of the night, as on a header off a corner, the freshman leapt into the air to punch the shot above the bar with an outstretched hand. Brown would then add another save on the ensuing corner, and to wrap up the stretch, she kept a long-range try out with just over two minutes left to keep the score at 0-0.
The Islanders would manage to keep it here for the first portion of the second half, at which point the Cardinals opened up the floodgates, netting all three of their goals within a four-minute span to go ahead for good. During this stretch, the team got shots on goal from
Vanessa Wimbish and
Ashley Wilson, but it was unable to hit paydirt, leaving it unable to keep pace as the match reached its conclusion.
By the time the match was done, the Islanders attempted 11 total shots and put five on target, all of which came from the group of Porter, Wilson, Wimbish and
Natalie Taylor. On the other side, Brown logged eight saves, which was her second-most in a match this year behind only the nine she made on the road at UIW on October 8.
The Islanders will now return home for their final home match of the season over the weekend, hosting HCU for Bark at the Park on Sunday at noon.
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