Box Score
ABILENE - Midwestern State rallied from a 1-0 deficit with two goals in a three-minute window, giving them the 2011 Lone Star Conference Championship over Abilene Christian Sunday afternoon at the Wildcat Soccer Pitch.
Kelsey Hill headed in Heidi Avila's cross for the game-tying score in the 76th minute, and then Mickey Brown, fresh off the bench, booted the game-winner in the 79th minute. The Mustangs held on over the final 11 minutes as ACU junior forward
Krysta Grimm pushed a penalty kick left of the net in the 81st minute, and shots by
Andrea Carpenter and
Ashley Craig were either blocked or saved.
Ashley Holton fired off one last ACU corner kick with 15 seconds left in regulation, but MSU cleared it out just as they did with eight others.
Midwestern State improved to 13-5-2 with the victory and became the first team in over a year to defeat the Wildcats, whose program-record winning and unbeaten streaks were snapped at 14 and 24, respectively. ACU's last loss came at A&M-Commerce on Oct. 29, 2010 and its most recent home defeat was to the Mustangs on Sept. 26, 2010.
After the teams played to a 0-0 first half - in which the Wildcats outshot MSU, 9-6 - both sides came out of the break determined to be the first to score. Mustang Alyssa Cooper fired the first shot, which was saved by ACU senior goalkeeper
Elliott London, and then a corner kick by
Lexi Stirling led to consecutive shots by Grimm, the first of which was blocked while the second was saved by Mallory Whitworth.
Seconds later MSU was back down in its attacking third, and Lindsay Pritchard, who had the assist on Brown's game-winner, had a shot stopped by London, and then Heidi Avila lofted a ball that landed behind London before bouncing over the net.
ACU immediately took advantage of the lucky break and started a charge down the field led by Grimm and Carpenter. Grimm brought the ball up the middle of the field, and shortly after crossing the midfield stripe, she played it forward to Carpenter, who beat Whitworth to the ball and ripped it into the open net.
Ashley Craig nearly made it a 2-0 game less than two minutes later but Whitworth caught her cross at the corner of the six-yard box, and then Carpenter struck the near post in the 55th minute.
Carpenter's goal was her 15th of the season and third of the tournament. She was one of three Wildcats named to the all-tournament team along with midfielders
Jacey Ferrara and
Julie Coppedge.
Hill was named Championship MVP and was joined on the all-tournament team by Whitworth, Pritchard, Avila and Hanna Staley.
Whitworth finished the match with seven saves and London had six.
Next up for the Wildcats is the opening round of the NCAA DII Tournament, but they won't find out who they're playing or where they're going until all the pairings are announced on NCAASports.com Monday at 6 p.m. ACU entered the week as the No. 1 team in the South Central Region.
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