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ABILENE – Abilene Christian launches its Western Athletic Conference soccer schedule with a road trip on Thursday to Texas-Rio Grande Valley.
ACU's third visit to Edinburgh in as many seasons has the Cats starting at 6:30 p.m.
The Wildcats are 5-3-1 this season after a 2-0 loss at Oklahoma State. All three ACU losses this season have been on the road at Power-5 schools.
ACU Storylines
FOR OPENERS: Abilene Christian has not opened conference play with a win since beating Houston Christian in 2019 to start the Southland Conference schedule. The Wildcats have come away with draws in the conference opener for each of the last two seasons.
SHUT DOWN: Abilene Christian has six shutouts this season in its nine games. One of those was a 1-0 win at Lamar.
KEEPS: ACU has five combined shutouts this season. Lili Ross has the lone solo shutout and has combined on four others. Savanna Alba and Julia Herges have collaborated on three ACU shutouts apiece.
STINGY: ACU's first five shutouts this season set a school record for most consecutive shutouts to start a season. ACU has six clean sheets on the season. Last year's squad had five for the season. The school record is 13 shutouts set by the 2018 Wildcats, who reached the NCAA Tournament.
HONOR ROLL: ACU has had two players – the first two in three years of WAC membership – earn WAC Defensive Player of the Week honors.
McCarly Holloman won the award in week one, followed by
Macie Stephens in week two.
MULTIS: Chayse Thorn has four multi-goal games this season, including a hat trick against Texas-Permian Basin. She had two goals each against Prairie View A&M, Texas Southern and Nicholls. Taylor
Denn also has a multi-goal game this season, recording a brace against
UTPB and
Amelia Leggett came off of the bench on Thursday for a brace against Prairie View A&M.
SCORING: Seven Wildcats have put the ball in the net this season, led by
Chayse Thorn with nine goals. Taylor
Denn has three.
Amelia Leggett and
Peyton Hill have two apiece. Jordan
Michie,
Georgia Guenther,
Peyton Hill and Hannah
Vetromile have one apiece. Thorn is second in the league in goals and tied for the lead in goals per game. She leads the league with 2.22 points per game.
ASSISTS: Nine different Cats have one assist each this season.
Chayse Thorn and
Taylor Denn have two each.
Jazilyn Torres,
Lox Neves,
Macie Stephens,
Hannah Martin,
McCarly Holloman,
Peyton Hill and Jordan
Michie have had the assists this season.
THAT BACK LINE: With six shutouts the back row has been tremendous this season.
Macie Stephens,
McCarly Holloman and
Georgia Guenther have been the primary starting defenders.
History with UTRGV
ACU leads the series 3-2
Current ACU streak vs UTRGV: Lost 2
Last meeting: UTRGV won 1-0 in Edinburgh
Scouting the Vaqueros
- UTRG is 2-4-2 after a 1-1 tie at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
- Elia Compian has been the leading keeper for UTRGV with a 1.38 GAA and 12 saves.
- Ana Recarte-Pacheco leads the team with two goals this season.
- Rosie Train and Abbie Bailey have one goal each and Train has an assist.
- Linnea Eld leads the Vaqueros with two assists this season.
