AUSTIN – The St. Edward's Hilltoppers women's soccer team suffered its first Lone Star Conference loss of the season, falling 2-0 to the nationally top-ranked Dallas Baptist University Patriots.
Feeding off home-field advantage, the Hilltoppers opened the contest with a surge of energy. St. Edward's generated several opportunities early by switching the field and sending long passes over the top, with Maddi Brown finding KATIE GAY for the first shot on goal.
Two minutes later, Gay received a pass from Elena Ramos Banet
and took an ambitious attempt that went wide-right near the three-minute mark. A few minutes later, Gay intercepted a pass on the edge of her own attacking third and maneuvered past a defender to create space for a dangerous look stopped on a diving effort by Dallas Baptist keeper Adrianna Shroeder
.
Dallas Baptist withstood the opening salvo and countered with a quick strike to seize momentum. Patriots defender Jacquiline Wiebe took the ball near midfield and found a crease in the defense, sprinting through the layers of the Hilltopper formation, drawing a crowd. Wiebe made the quick pass to Haley Roberson, who immediately sent the cross to Kaeligh Naizer for the leaping header into the back of the net at the 11:38 mark.
Scoring on their first opportunity pushed momentum squarely in the Patriots' favor, getting three shots over the next five minutes, including one on target stopped by St. Edward's keeper ABBY CARLSON and two other dangerous looks that sailed off target.
Trailing 1-0 at the break, St. Edward's pressed a little too much in the second half with ambitious passes that turned into quick counters the other way. Carlson made a pair of saves and disrupted several passes into the box.
St. Edward's created several runs into its attacking third over the final 45 minutes but only came away with three shot attempts to show for it with Dallas Baptist playing disciplined defensively.
The Patriots scored when a punt off Carlson's foot landed in the midfield circle near Joeli Benson. She headed the ball to Michelle Gonzalez in open space towards the left side, with Gonzales sending it off her left foot into the back-right corner of the net to put the game out of reach.
St. Edward's drops to 8-2-2 with the loss, including 4-1-1 in conference play. Dallas Baptist improves to 8-1-1 and 4-1-1 in the conference. The Hilltoppers will travel to Odessa, Texas, this weekend to play Texas Permian Basin.
