SAN ANTONIO – Freshman
Christina Arteaga scored her first collegiate goal and led all players with seven shots – four on goal – in the Wildcats' 2-1 season-opening defeat Friday at UTSA.
The Roadrunners (1-0) have now won the last two matches in their series after dropping a 5-3 decision to the Wildcats (1-0) during a 2015 meeting in Austin.
UTSA raced out to a 4-0 lead during last season's contest in Abilene and appeared well on its way to duplicating that feat again tonight as Ellis Patterson's first two shots of the match in the each found the back of the net, infuriating head coach
Casey Wilson.
Patterson's goals both were against the run of play and came in the fourth and ninth minutes.
"We beat ourselves tonight," he said. "Our feet were stuck in the sand the first 10 minutes and they scored twice. All in all, we need to clean some things up, learn from our mistakes, and realize we had plenty of opportunities to win the match and we simply didn't take advantage."
ACU closed the deficit in the 28th minute when a pass from senior
Megan Baer found Arteaga, who booted a 30-yard strike from the middle of the pitch past first-half goalkeeper Michelle Cole, who made five stops in 45 minutes of action.
But it was Cole's replacement, Gabriella Mariello, who made the biggest save of the match, when she stopped Arteaga's penalty kick with just over 20 minutes left in regulation. ACU additionally had four strikes ricochet off the cross bar.
UTSA finished with a 16-15 advantage in shots after trailing in this category, 12-7, at the break, and placed seven shots on goal as freshman goalkeeper
Erin Smith made five saves in her collegiate debut.
The Wildcats conclude their weekend trip Sunday at 1 p.m. against UTEP in El Paso. Fans can follow game action
here.
