Central Arkansas Live Stats | Oral Roberts Live Stats
ABILENE – Abilene Christian handed Southeastern Louisiana its first conference loss Sunday and will look to do the same twice more this weekend when the Wildcats play host to Southland unbeatens Central Arkansas and Oral Roberts at the Wildcat Soccer Pitch.
The Wildcats enter the halfway point of conference play in a four-way tie for first place with Oral Roberts (3-0), Nicholls State (3-1) and Southeastern Louisiana (3-1), while UCA is three points behind at 2-0. The Sugar Bears visit here Friday at 4 p.m., while the Golden Eagles' Key City arrival is scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m. Live stats will be available to view for both contests.
ACU survived its longest bus trip of the season last week, returning from eastern Louisiana with a 1-1 record against two of the league's best in Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana. The Colonels beat the Wildcats Friday with a pair of second-half goals in their 3-1 win, but then disappeared defensively in falling 4-2 to Incarnate Word. All four Cardinal goals were scored in the second half.
The Wildcats quickly rebounded with a 1-0 win over the league's top defensive unit in Southeastern Louisiana. Senior
Andrea Carpenter headed in the game-winner early in the second half off an assist from
Katherine Garner, and then the defense took care of the rest, holding the Lions to just two shots through the end of regulation.
Freshman
Kelsey Dombrowski was credited with the shutout in her first full 90-minute appearance, making three saves on seven shots faced. Earlier this year Dombrowski split four shutouts with classmate
Sydney Newton, who last week blanked Houston Baptist on her own, 1-0.
Dombrowski's performance lowered her goals-against average to 0.44, which is second in the league to the Lions' Hope Sabadash (0.38). Newton's GAA is the seventh best at 0.88. The two ACU freshmen goalkeepers also are ranked among the SLC's top 10 in save percentage at .833 and .786, respectively.
As for Carpenter, she simply continues to amaze on offense despite averaging just over 3.0 shots per match. Nine of her 34 attempts have hit the back of the net for a .265 goal percentage and her shot-on-goal percentage is an equally impressive .412. Even more staggering is the fact that three of Carpenter's five shots on goal vs. conference opponents have beat the goalkeeper.
Among the conference leaders, Carpenter ranks second to Nicholls' Spencer Valdespino with nine goals and 22 points and is tied for third with several others, including teammate
Alyssa Gerner, with four assists.
Central Arkansas comes to Abilene at 5-3-2 and riding a modest two-game winning streak over conference foes Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (2-1) and Northwestern State (3-0). Sugar Bear Adriana Lucar scored both her goals vs. the Lady Demons in the 22nd and 26th minutes to earn Offensive Player of the Week honors from the Southland. She leads her team with 16 points this season on the strength of seven goals and two assists, while Brooke Ballard is second with 12 points (five goals, two assists).
UCA's Lyndzey Goff garnered the SLC's Goalkeeper of the Week award even though she's split considerable time in net with Hayley Romero (five starts, 315 minutes) and Kaitlyn Keith (four starts, 353 minutes) throughout the year. Goff played the second half in both of last week's matches, but has two of her team's five wins, a 1.67 GAA and .615 save percentage.
Oral Roberts has the Southland's longest win streak currently at four matches with victories coming against Arkansas State, Stephen F. Austin, Lamar and Corpus Christi. The Golden Eagles hammered the Cardinals, 3-0, before edging the first-year Islanders, 2-1.
ORU ranks third as a team with 79 points behind only Nicholls (101) and Southeastern Louisiana (89) as the Golden Eagles have received five goals each from Jennifer Abernathy, Mary-Kate Halsmer and Kayla Keller. Abernathy also has 16 points and six assists, while Keller has two assists and Megan Giles has three.
Maggie Rhodes has played the majority of minutes in goal for ORU and has a 0.84 GAA, .815 save percentage and 22 saves to go with her four victories.
