Lady Cats have success at the Border shoot-out

A 1,000 mile road trip to the Midwest provided the Catamount soccer team with two things they haven’t had this year: a goal and a win. During this long trip, the Lady Cats had plenty of scoring and got a couple of wins. The first game of this road trip pitted the Catamounts against the Texas State Bobcats in the Border Shootout on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso. The Catamounts had gone over 400 minutes since they scored their last goal, which was in the finals of the Southern Conference Tournament last year. Western would end that drought right before the end of the 1st half as Cary, North Carolina, native Buki Baruwa notched her 1st career goal and the 1st goal of the season for Western on what happened to be a rebound goal that hit the post. This would give the Lady Cats a 1-0 lead going into halftime. Western would continue their scoring just after the halftime horn had sounded. Lauren Atkinson scored her 1st goal of the season by taking advantage of a live bouncing ball in the goalie’s box; she stopped it and fired it into the lower right hand corner of the net for the 2-0 advantage with less than 40 minutes left in the game. Texas State would cut the lead in half in the 63rd minute on a goal by Kristy Collison that goalkeeper Alesha Row seemed to have mistimed and the ball took a bad hop and was out of Row’s reach. Western got their final goal of the match when freshman forward Shanna Schmoker blasted a shot into the left side of the net for the final goal at the 87:07 mark of the game for the 3-1 victory, Western’s 1st win on the year. The Lady Cats out shot Texas State 14-10 even though the Lady Bobcats had a 4-2 edge in corner kicks. Row recorded 4 saves in the game for her 1st win of the season. Two days later, Western took on the Sam Houston State Bearkats in their 2nd game of the Border Shootout and came out of the game with a share of the tournament title with a 4-2 victory. Freshman Nikki Lombardo tallied her 1st collegiate goal just 13 minutes into the game on a one-timer from Junior Lauren Atkinson. Sam Houston would tie up the game at 1 on the 28th minute as Mary MacGregor would score the 1st of her 2 goals of the game on a free kick. The final 6 minutes of the half saw Western score twice in that span first, Junior Heather Dittmer, who was the leading scorer a year ago, put in her 1st goal of the season for a 2-1 advantage in the 40th minute of the 1st half with Arlan Whittle chipping in on the assist. In that same minute, freshman Bri Cunningham scored her 1st collegiate goal on a redirection shot on the rebound for the 2-goal lead at halftime, 3-1. Sam Houston State busted out of the gates in the 2nd half to cut the Lady Cats lead in half with another goal from Macgregor. Western would hold a slim 1 goal lead the biggest part of the 2nd half until Cunningham cashed in on an opportunity and put the ball in the net on a ricochet at the 82:27 mark in the 2nd half, which would give the Lady Cats the 4-2 win. The 4 goals were most scored by Western since they scored 6 times back in 2004. Western showed the offensive intensity that has been lacking in the early games this season by out shooting the Lady Bearkats 16-7, including 8 shots in both halves and a 7-0 edge in corner kicks. Despite their offensive prowess, the Lady Cats were whistled for offside 8 times in the game. Senior Alesha Row had just 1 save on 7 shots to get her 2nd win of the season.