ABILENE – The Abilene Christian soccer team will play its final two road matches of the regular season this Friday and Sunday at West Texas A&M and Eastern New Mexico.
This trip also marks the start of the Lone Star Conference season's second half, as the Wildcats will play all seven schools again once more. ACU's first trip through the gauntlet ended at 1-5-1, with the lone win coming at home against the Zias and the tie at Midwestern State. The Lady Buffs, meanwhile, beat the Wildcats, 3-1, and remain atop the standings at 5-2.
Texas Woman's and Incarnate Word trail West Texas by only a few points, but the rest of the conference schools remain either at .500 or below. Only the top six teams qualify for the postseason tournament, and the Wildcats are currently five points behind that final spot, needing to leapfrog two schools along the way.
West Texas was last year's sixth seed and finished with 16 points behind a 5-8-1 record. But this season, the Lady Buffs lead most of the conference's offensive categories and are No. 1 in points and goals with per game averages of 5.64 and 2.09. Leslie Briggs, who at this point looks to be a favorite for LSC Player of the Year, leads West Texas and the conference with 2.64 points and 1.09 goals per game.
Two additional scoring threats for the Lady Buffs are Emily Krenek and Jesse Thomas, each of who has eight points.
Defensively, however, West Texas has not been as sharp and comes into the weekend with the conference's second-highest goals-against average at 1.62. Eastern New Mexico has the next highest GAA with 1.82, while the Wildcats rank fourth at 1.43.
West Texas goalkeeper Yvette Bedoy leads the LSC with 64 saves, and in second is ACU's
Arielle Moncure with 52. Eastern's Xan Ortiz has 43 saves and is tied for the conference lead with three shutouts.
Neither ACU nor Eastern New Mexico have seen much in the way of offense so far this year as each school has only scored nine times through 11 matches – an average of 0.82 goals per match. Junior
Andrea Carpenter leads the Wildcats with three, while Danielle Thurman has four for the Zias.
The Zias also have received three goals, including two game-winners, from Victoria Perez, plus three assists from Jackie Perez. But overall, Eastern ranks last in the conference with 8.27 shots taken per match.
