EL PASO, Texas - Abilene Christian junior goalkeeper
Kelsey Dombrowski made seven saves in a complete-game effort Sunday but couldn't get a glove on Angela Cutaia's header in the 81st minute and UTEP held on to defeat the Wildcats 1-0 in the third-ever meeting between the two sides.
Freshman Carleigh Simmons sent the ball into the box and was credited with an assist after Cutaia - a senior midfielder - headed the bouncer in off the bottom of the crossbar.
ACU now trails the all-time series 0-2-1.
The Wildcats threatened to tie the score twice with a pair of corner kicks by junior
Natalie Throneberry in the 87th and 88th minutes. Miner midfielder Aleah Davis, however, cleared out one of the attempts, and earlier in the second half (78') she headed back another service leading to a defensive clearance.
The Miners outshot the Wildcats for the match 18-10 and blocked all four of ACU's shots during the second half. Tries by Throneberry and freshman
Sophie Standifer were stopped at the start of the 60th minute, rookie
Caity Acosta was denied in the 72nd, and sophomore
Baylee Mitchell came up empty in the 78th.
"Our team competed well today and moved the ball around great for a majority of the game and often had it in our attacking third quite a bit," said head coach
Casey Wilson. "Now we just need to take advantage of our chances when we are down there."
Dombrowski, meanwhile, put on quite a show in between the pipes. In the 51st minute she swatted away a Cutaia header that first hit off the post, and right before the half she lept to catch a rising blast off the foot of Alexa Bain.
Dombrowski also made a clutch stop off a free kick headed by Davis in the 18th and came up big again in the 37th, diving to catch a Taylor Kidd rebound following a blocked shot by Cutaia.
Cutaia led all players with seven shots and put two on frame, while Mitchell and senior
Lindsey Jones led the Wildcats with three shots apiece.
UTEP goalkeeper Alyssa Palacios made three saves with the last coming in the 24th minute. She smothered a low, hard shot by
Chantal Kinsey in the 12th minute in between catching attempts by Mitchell and Jones.
Despite not recording a shot on goal over the final 45 minutes, the Wildcats did create five corner kick opportunities all of which came past the 72nd minute.
The Wildcats will look to snap their season-opening, two-match losing streak next weekend with consecutive neutral-site matches vs. UTSA (Friday) and UC Irvine (Sunday) in Austin and College Station, respectively.
