Sam Houston Live Stats | Houston Baptist Live Stats
ABILENE – Tied with for Nicholls State for the best record in the Southland Conference at 6-0-1, the Abilene Christian soccer team will get its first real look at league competition this weekend when they play host to Sam Houston State and Houston Baptist Friday and Sunday at the Wildcat Soccer Pitch.
The Bearkats will face ACU Friday at 4 p.m., while the Huskies make their visit Sunday at 1 p.m. Live stats will be provided for both matches via StatBroadcast and
Stretch Internet.
The Wildcats should be well rested for these matches as they haven't played since last Saturday – a 2-0 win at Wayland Baptist in which senior
Andrea Carpenter extended her consecutive-point streak to five matches with an assist to
Jacey Ferrara in the 32nd minute. Carpenter last week also was credited with the game-winning assist on
Emily Sumrall's goal at Midwestern State.
Carpenter now has 16 points on the season, ranking her second in the Southland Conference to Southeastern's Kelsey Salcido, and her four assists tie a career season high from 2010. Carpenter's six goals are tied for second in the league, but more importantly, she has four teammates who have each scored two goals: Ferrara, Sumrall,
Tiffany Ysassi and
Natalie Throneberry.
Overall, the Wildcats have scored 15 times and are averaging 2.14 goals per match, which places them in the upper half of the league rankings. But the team's defense has been even more impressive complete with its four shutouts and third-ranked goals-against average of 0.54. In fact, ACU's rookie goalkeeping duo of
Kelsey Dombrowski and
Sydney Newton have only had to make 19 saves – the second fewest in the conference – as their line is surrendering an average of 8.6 shots per match and fewer than two corner kicks.
And after pitching back-to-back shutouts on the road, ACU's consecutive scoreless minute streak is now at
229:47 with the last goal allowed coming at Drury in the 53rd minute of a double-overtime win on Sept. 8. The last time ACU recorded consecutive road shutouts was on the weekend of Sept. 23-25, 2011 as the Wildcats defeated Eastern New Mexico (3-0) and West Texas A&M (2-0).
Sam Houston State is off to a 2-4-1 start after losing both of last week's matches on the road at Texas State (1-2) and SMU (0-4). The Bearkats opened the year with a big 6-0 win vs. Texas Southern and then went winless over their next three matches before shutting out Prairie View A&M, 3-0.
Mariah Titus leads Sam Houston State with six points on three goals. In goal, Kyle Hambleton has played the most minutes with 515:00 and has 50 saves with a 1.75 GAA.
Houston Baptist (1-5-1) also has struggled in terms of wins and losses through the first few weeks of the season, but the Huskies have played all of their opponents extremely close as all seven matches have been decided by one goal or less.
HBU started the year with four consecutive one-goal defeats before edging Utah Valley, 1-0. The Huskies last weekend fell 1-0 to UTEP and tied Houston at 0-0.
Rebekah Tovar has scored two of HBU's goals with the third coming from Natalie Hager.
Huskie goalkeeper Stephanie Castellon has allowed just five goals in 5:16.53 minutes (0.87). She has two shutouts to her credit and 40 saves.
