CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi soccer team kept its hot start to the 2026 season rolling on Sunday morning, finding a spark in the late stages of the game and downing Prairie View A&M by a final score of 2-0.
With the result, the Islanders (2-0-1) got themselves up to seven points through their first three games of the season, surpassing the six that they posted to begin the 2022 campaign for the best three-game start in program history. They also extended their current unbeaten streak up to seven matches in a row, having not lost in regulation since back on October 12 of last season.
In their first taste of game action in a full week, A&M-Corpus Christi managed to come out strong, getting a corner kick just 22 seconds into the match and putting its first shot on goal off the foot of
Grace Clay after only two minutes on the pitch. The most promising try of the early goings came in the 18
th minute, when
Natalie Nyberg received a bouncing ball at the edge of the box and attempted to chip her shot over goalkeeper Nenah Jackson, who sent back the try with an impressive leaping save. The offense for the hosts slowed down after this, as despite outshooting the Lady Panthers (0-3-0) by a mark of 6-2 in the opening 45 minutes, they ended up being hindered by a tighter whistle, getting whistled for six fouls against just one on the other side and seeing yellow cards shown to both
Jenna Largent and
MyJoi Anderson.
Once the second half got underway, the Islanders continued searching for the breakthrough that had eluded them to that point, and it looked as though they had got it in the 63
rd minute when a failed clearance put them in a prime position to score. After the ball ended up at the feet of
Averi Scruggs, she fed Anderson with a pass into the box that the forward one-timed into the net, but the flag came up for offsides right away, negating the goal and restarting the action back at a 0-0 tally.
After coming up just short on her first real opportunity, Anderson did not miss her next one, coming through with the go-ahead goal just 13 minutes later. The scoring chance came about on a shot from
Katie Porter that was deflected by a Prairie View defender, which then ricocheted right to the sophomore striker, who tapped it into the bottom right corner of the net to finally put the Islanders on the board. This marked the first goal of the season for Anderson, who put home three in 2025 as part of her standout freshman season.
This spark ended up opening the floodgates for A&M-Corpus Christi, with the team putting another one home just three minutes after the restart. This time around, it was again Porter who catalyzed the offense, as the Islanders captain drew a penalty on a run into the box and then stepped up to the spot and banged the try home herself, giving the hosts the insurance they needed to take the match the rest of the way. This score gave Porter a goal in each of the first three games of the season and put her on eight points through the first week and a half, surpassing her total of six from her entire collegiate career heading into 2026, which had come across 51 matches and more than 2300 minutes.
By the time the final buzzer sounded, the Islanders ended up taking 15 shots in total and putting nine on goal as opposed to seven and five respectively for the Lady Panthers, making it three matches in a row that they have outshot their opponents to begin the year. Porter led the way in this category with four shots of her own and two on target, with a big group of eight players managing to get on the score sheet in that category behind her. On the other side, the team posted its second consecutive clean sheet thanks in large part to a very nice effort from keeper
Jessie Spurrell, who recorded five saves to secure her first solo shutout since taking over as the starter back on September 28 of last year.
A&M-Corpus Christi will now try to keep rolling in the final week of their season-opening homestand, playing the first of two matches on Thursday at 7 p.m. when they host Sam Houston at the Dr. Jack Dugan Family Soccer & Track Stadium.
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