CONWAY, Ark. - Senior goalkeeper
Sydney Newton made eight saves in 110 minutes for her fourth shutout of the season as the Abilene Christian soccer team played to a scoreless tie against one of the Southland Conference's most prolific offenses in Central Arkansas Sunday afternoon at Stephens Stadium.
The Bears entered today's contest winners of four-straight conference matches by a combined score of 18-2, but they couldn't get anything past Newton despite firing 24 shots and taking five corner kicks.
Newton only had to stop one of seven shots in the first half, but she and the Wildcat defense were tested frequently within the first 25 minutes of the second half. The Mansfield, Texas, native caught a header from Camille Bassett in the 48th minute, and six minutes later, ACU survived a Shelby Wilson strike off the crossbar that followed a Dayna Mounie corner kick.
The Bears also missed on two other corner kick-initiated shots in the first overtime. A Mounie shot in the 96th minute sailed wide, and one of Bassett's seven shots sailed high in the 98th minute.
Each side recorded just one shot on goal in the second overtime. ACU's
Dylan Owens was robbed of the golden goal by an Central Arkansas defender 21 seconds into the final period, and just 29 seconds later, Newton made her eighth and final save resulting in her eighth career shutout. She now ranks third all time at ACU in shutouts behind Elliott London's 13 and Crissy Lawson's 10.
Today's shutout also was ACU's second scoreless draw of the season and fourth in program history. It also was the Wildcats third through five Southland Conference matches, lowering their league goals-against average to 0.56.
"It was a tough battle today ... and getting a result like that on a long road trip isnt' too bad," said head coach
Casey Wilson. "UCA is a very athletic team with dangerous players, but we had a good plan going in and played well overall. We still need to make the most of our chances after taking the ball up field ... we had some good attacks and had some chances to put the game away."
Owens led the Wildcats with seven shots and had four turned away as UCA's goalkeeper Anna Hughes and Lauren Mercuri combined for the shutout.
Chantal Kinsey also had a shot that was saved by the Bears.
The Wildcats return home Friday for a 7 p.m. match against Houston Baptist, which placed second in the league last season. ACU is off next Sunday, and will then play host to Lamar and McNeese the weekend of Oct. 14 and 16 to conclude their home season.
