ABILENE – Recognized as one of the best home teams in the Lone Star Conference, the Abilene Christian soccer team can pull itself into the postseason picture with a couple of wins this weekend against visiting Angelo State and Incarnate Word.
ACU will welcome the Rambelles Friday for a 4 p.m. match before battling the Cardinals Sunday at 1 p.m.
Live statistics will be provided for each contest.
The Wildcats begin their week at 4-8-1 overall and a last-place conference mark of 2-6-1, but have played remarkably well over the past four seasons in Abilene, where they own an all-time winning percentage of .707 (31-12-3). Last year's team set a program record with 10 home wins, and this year's squad has so far played here only three times and is 2-1.
Another silver lining for ACU is that the conference's sixth-place teams (Eastern New Mexico and Midwestern State) are only five points ahead with five matches left to play, and fourth-place Texas Woman's is only six points ahead.
Incarnate Word (6-5, 6-3 LSC), meanwhile, is tied for first with West Texas A&M (7-5-1, 6-3 LSC) with 18 points, and Angelo State (7-5-1, 5-3-1) sits just two points behind in third.
ACU lost to the Cardinals and Angelo State last month in matches that were each affected by a red card issued to
Lexi Stirling during the early moments of a second-half tie at UIW. The all-conference senior was booted from the match after being called for a handball during the defense of a corner kick, and the Cardinals capitalized on her absence by scoring three consecutive goals en route to a 3-1 win.
By rule, Stirling also had to sit out vs. the Rambelles and watched her club lose from the sideline, 1-0, after Katie Squires delivered the game-winner in the 80th minute.
Following that weekend, the Wildcats salvaged a split of their first conference homestand and then struggled through most of a five-match road trip (1-3-1) until they clobbered Eastern New Mexico, 3-0 – a victory that was reminiscent of many from their 2011 regional championship campaign.
ACU out-shot the Zias, 18-8, and received goals in the 40th, 56th and 83rd minutes from
Krysta Grimm,
Katie Stivers and
Julie Coppedge. Grimm's goal came off an assist from
Whitley Lindholm, Stivers hooked in a corner kick, and then Coppedge clinched it after beating her defender for the unassisted score.
ACU's three goals were its most since tallying four in a victory last October at Texas A&M-Commerce.
Defensively, the Wildcats limited the Zias to just five second-half shots and prevented them from taking any corner kicks as
Arielle Moncure captured her third shutout of the season.
Incarnate Word comes to town as the conference's hottest team and is in the midst of a four-match winning streak that includes a 4-1 whipping of West Texas and shutouts over Angelo State, Commerce and Texas Woman's. Amber Guenther leads the Cardinal offense with 14 points and six goals, while four of her teammates have each contributed three goals.
Cardinal goalkeeper Heather Kowalik has started 10 of 11 matches and owns a 1.24 goals-against average. She has only had to make 30 saves on 107 shots faced.
Angelo State has won its last two since falling to Incarnate Word and are 3-3-3 on the road this season. The Rambelles are led on offense by Lauren Bateman's three goals, and their defense is allowing just over 9.0 shots and 1.0 goal per match. Danielle Edwards has played every minute in goal this season and has four shutouts to go along with a 1.04 GAA and 49 saves.
