RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley women's soccer team dropped its season-opening contest 1-0 to the Texas A&M International Dustdevils on Friday at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex.
UTRGV played good defense early, but TAMIU did create an opportunity for the first shot-on-goal of the contest. Vaqueros freshman goalkeeper
Emilie Schroeder made the save against TAMIU's
Lucia Cuadra.
Sophomore defender
Libby Beilfuss, senior forward
Jeweleen Reuille and senior midfielder
Ana Recarte-Pacheco made their presence known early and often, showing off their speed and attacking abilities. The trio combined for five of UTRGV's seven first-half shots.
In the 23
rd minute, Beilfuss grabbed a deflection of her own pass toward the box and sent a hard shot to the net, but it went wide right. Reuille had a strong stretch creating some pressure in the box with 10 minutes left in the first half. TAMIU junior keeper
Fabiana Solano was solid with help from the defense ahead and made a sliding save to stop the aggressive Reuille and keep the Vaqueros off the board in the first 14 minutes.
In the 37
th minute,
Marta Forne squared up a free kick following a UTRGV foul, but Schroeder read it all the way and made the save. The contest went to halftime at 0-0.
Freshman goalkeeper
Emma Lööv took over in the net for the second half. The Vaqueros dominated possession early in the second half, attempting four shots in the first 20 minutes. Sophomore forward
Amy Hislop, sophomore midfielder
Molly Reynosa and redshirt junior midfielder
Elina Seppälä had scoring opportunities but couldn't find the back of the net.
The Dustdevils played physical defense as UTRGV applied consistent pressure inside its offensive third. TAMIU carried the aggressive play to its offensive side of the pitch and snuck a goal inside the right post off the foot of
Krysan St. Louis in the 71
st minute to take a 1-0 lead over the Vaqueros.
UTRGV created a plethora of scoring opportunities, outshooting the Dustdevils 16-6, but some missed connections and solid play from Solano kept the Vaqueros off the board.
The Vaqueros return to the pitch Sunday at 6:30 p.m. to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the South Texas Showdown presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex.
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