ABILENE – Senior
Megan Baer scored her second goal of the season and fifth of her career Friday night at Elmer Gray Stadium in a tough 2-1 loss to the defending Southland Conference regular-season champions from Central Arkansas.
The victory was UCA's first in the series, which dates back to 2013 (2-1-2), and improved the Bears' overall and conference records to 6-6 and 3-1. The Wildcats' meanwhile slipped to 4-7 overall and 2-2 within the league.
"Central Arkansas had three shots on goal the whole game and scored on two of them, which were nicely shot balls," head coach
Casey Wilson said. "Same stats as last Sunday when we lost to Nicholls. We outplayed them the majority of the game but the final score is what matters. We hope to get another chance to play them this year (in the Southland Conference Tournament)."
Baer's goal in the 36th minute evened the score at 1-1 and was assisted by freshmen
Isa Sanabria and
Christina Arteaga. Sanabria got Arteaga the ball from the near sideline, and after Baer received the second pass from about eight-yards out she spun around a defender and hooked her shot into the top shelf past goalkeeper Lauren Mercuri, who made nine saves tonight (seven in the second half).
Arteaga now has been a part of three of ACU's last four goals, scoring two and assisting on Baer's.
The Wildcats had plenty more opportunities to score again afterward as they outshot the Bears 20-6 (9-4 second half) and won the corner kick battle, 10-2, only to be denied by Mercuri and the UCA defense time and again.
Sanabria came close to scoring her first career goal off a Baer corner kick right before intermission only to see Mercuri get both hands on the ball while falling to the ground. And in the final minute, Mercuri intercepted a long-range shot from sophomore midfielder
Brooke Lenz.
Dylan Owens and Arteaga led ACU with four shots apiece, while
Samantha Vestal added three.
Both of Central Arkansas' goals were both worthy of the season highlight reel. Autum Schwartz scored the match's first goal in the ninth minute from the center of the 18-yard box after taking a pass from Alex Moore and one-timing it past ACU's goalkeeper
Erin Smith. Schwartz received the ball in an open space and did not hesitate on her attack.
Moore later scored the game-winner with less than five minutes left in regulation. First she shook off a defender at the corner of the 18, and promptly dipped a shot into the upper 90 that Smith had virtually no chance of catching.
The Wildcats' look to rebound from tonight's loss and break their two-match losing streak Sunday at 1 p.m. vs. Northwestern State.
