ABILENE – ACU soccer may be off to a slow start but that seems to be the case for everyone in an up-for-grabs Lone Star Conference, which enters the week with a cumulative record of 24-35-4 (.413).
As of Tuesday, only three of the eight conference teams are playing above .500, while the rest are two or more games below. The West Texas A&M Lady Buffs (5-3-1, 4-1 LSC), who finished sixth in 2011, are the league's current leader with 12 points followed a Texas Woman's (4-3-1, 3-1 LSC) team that has already quadrupled its win total from 2011.
Angelo State (4-3-1, 2-1-1), Eastern New Mexico (3-6, 2-3) and Incarnate Word (2-4, 2-2) pack the middle of the standings, but most surprisingly, there in the bottom half are the previous two conference champions Abilene Christian (3-5, 1-3) and Midwestern State (1-6-1, 1-21).
The Wildcats are tied for seventh with Texas A&M-Commerce (2-5, 1-3), while the Mustangs, their chief rivals from a year ago are one point ahead. ACU won three of four matches vs. Midwestern State in 2011, including twice during the regular season, and then again during the second-round of the NCAA Championship. The Mustangs, however, edged the Wildcats in the conference tournament finals.
But this year's Midwestern State team has struggled in averaging just 0.63 goals per match while allowing more than twice that at 1.88. The Mustangs' first three opponents all scored three goals and then Southwestern Oklahoma beat them, 2-0. Conference play also has not been kind to MSU, which was stunned in back-to-back matches this past weekend against the Zias, 1-0, and Lady Buffs, 2-1.
ACU experienced a slightly better weekend against those two schools, as the Wildcats extended their series-winning streak over the Zias to four. But the Lady Buffs, led by the conference's leading scorer Leslie Briggs, snapped their three-match losing streak to ACU with a 3-1 triumph.
Briggs scored the match's first goal while her team was left short handed and then added an assist off a set piece late in the first half. After ACU got back in the match at 2-1, West Texas essentially sealed the win with its goal in the 60th minute after Jesse Thomas finished off Berklee Watson's free kick from midfield.
The Wildcats created a number of scoring opportunities in both their matches and out-shot the opposition a combined, 29-15, but they've yet to experience a true offensive outburst like the ones their players are accustomed. Last year's team registered six matches in which it scored three or more goals, while the 2010 squad posted 11 such efforts.
ACU matched its two-goal season high in the win against Eastern New Mexico, first receiving an unassisted score from junior
Andrea Carpenter and later a penalty kick off the foot of senior
Julie Coppedge. The Wildcats recorded nine first-half shots vs. the Zias, but were quieted the rest of the way and finished with just three more in holding onto a 2-1 win.
Sunday against the Lady Buffs, ACU fired 17 shots but could only get one past one past Yvette Bedoy in the 50th minute when Coppedge put back a rebound from about six yards away.
Texas Woman's has won four of its last five after going 0-2-1 to start the season and is led on offense by Brittany Martin, who has scored 15 points on six goals and three assists. Lindsay Sisco has played a majority of the minutes in goal for the Pioneers and is 3-3 with a 1.51 goals-against average.
Commerce, which finished fourth a year ago in the LSC with a .500 record, has lost its last three. The Lions began the year 2-2 with wins over West Texas and Ouachita Baptist, but have recently fallen to Eastern New Mexico, Angelo State and Incarnate Word by a combined score of 7-2.
Anitra Wright leads Commerce with three goals, while Brionne Minde has eight points with two goals and four assists.
