Box Score
ABILENE – The No. 4 Abilene Christian women's soccer team withstood a flurry of second-half shots in holding on to a 1-0 win over Midwestern State Wednesday afternoon at the Wildcat Soccer Pitch.
The win kept ACU's unbeaten streak alive at 16 matches dating back to last season and raised its overall and Lone Star Conference records to 10-0-1 and 6-0-1. MSU dropped to 5-3-2 and 3-3-1 with the defeat.
Wednesday's match also marked the conference season's halfway point. ACU will play all seven LSC schools once again starting with Friday's 4 p.m. home match vs. Eastern New Mexico. The Wildcats defeated the Zias 3-0 earlier this season in Portales, N.M.
"It was good to make it through the first round of conference play unscathed, and we'll start fresh Friday," head coach
Casey Wilson said. "One of the great things about this team is that we have the ability to rearrange players and positions to the point to still make them effective no matter who comes out ... Tonight we confirmed with ourselves that we're consistently competitive. Even on a bad day, we have enough competitiveness to make up for any obstacles we come up against."
The Mustangs outshot ACU 10-3 in the second half – and 13-11 for the match – but senior
Elliott London remained steady in goal, making four saves en route to her third shutout of the season and second straight over MSU. A steady 20 miles per hour breeze from the south also helped both defenses as fewer than 50 percent (10-of-24) of all shots made it on frame.
Mustang goalkeeper Mallory Whitworth had a solid game in net, finishing with five saves, but couldn't handle
Andrea Carpenter's lone shot taken in the 20th minute. For Carpenter it was her 10th goal of the year and 31st of her career. Assisting on the goal for the fourth time this season was senior
Lyndsey Womack, who made the move from defense to midfield for today's match.
ACU was previously denied by Whitworth on two shots by
Krysta Grimm, but everything worked to perfection on this particular scoring drive as the Wildcats connected several passes up the middle prior to Carpenter finishing Womack's cross from eight-yards back.
"My goal could not have been set up any better," Carpenter said. "There was textbook progression down the field and Lyndsey sent the perfect ball to me. It was one of the more natural goals I've scored this season because everyone contributed to making it happen. Without Lyndsey's spot-on pass, I would not have been able to score. She is the one who did the work on that."
Shots for the Wildcats afterward were far and few between as MSU blocked two more attempts following Whitworth's save on
Ashley Holton's shot. ACU's final shot of the first half came with more than six minutes remaining, and later was blanked over the final 21 minutes of the second half.
Whitley Lindholm received ACU's best look of the second half, hooking the ball from left to right in front of the net only to see it caught off the ground by Whitworth.
"We didn't create as many chances offensively today as we've had in other games, but the positive thing is that the goal we scored was a very nice, clean goal that included a crisp pass and a great finish," Wilson said. "Sometimes it's nice to score a goal with less opportunities than we've had in the past, so that's a good way to win too."
MSU, meanwhile, fired five shots and a corner kick during the last 10 minutes of regulation, but three sailed high, Lindholm blocked another inside the 18, and London stopped Kelsey Hill's final strike in the 87th minute.
"It was a tight game and I felt like we weren't pressed as much defensively until later in the game," Wilson said. "Later on, they were pushing us back on our end a little bit, but most of their shots were from long range. I'm really impressed with our defense because they played well today despite tough conditions. Hill and (Lindsay) Pritchard are great athletes, so it was nice to hold them off and keep them at bay during the game."
Hill and Holton led all players with three shots. Pritchard placed both of her shots on goal.
