SMU Soccer Defeats Memphis

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DALLAS (SMU) – The SMU men’s soccer team closed out the regular season by defeating Memphis, 2-1, on Senior Night at Westcott Field on Friday night. Sophomore Juan Castillo and senior Arthur Ivo scored a minute apart to earn the Mustang victory. With the win, SMU ends the regular season with a 10-6-1 record and a 4-3-1 mark in Conference USA. Memphis finishes 11-5-1 and 4-4-0 in league play.

Memphis opened the scoring early with a goal 1:43 into the game. Mark Sherrod headed the ball to Lewis Ellis who spun around and flipped the ball up and over SMU goalkeeper Jaime Ibarra for a 1-0 lead.

Castillo scored the equalizer at the 37 minute mark. Pressuring forward, Castillo stripped a defender of the ball, deked around the Memphis goalie and shot the ball into the open net to knot the score at one. The goal was Castillo’s fifth of the season.

Ivo tallied the eventual game-winner exactly one minute later. Junior Ben Hill sent a through ball to Ivo up the right side who went around the Tiger keeper and fired a shot in from a very sharp angle. The goal was Ivo’s team-leading sixth of the year and his third game-clincher.

Ibarra had several key saves for SMU including a spectacular jumping save to put the ball up over the crossbar in the 84th minute, and he stopped a bullet with 16 seconds remaining in the game to preserve the Mustang win.

SMU plays in the quarterfinals of the Conference USA Championships on Nov. 9 at either 5 or 7:30 p.m. in Tulsa, Okla. The Mustangs’ seed and opponent will be known following tomorrow night’s matchup between Marshall and UCF.