SMU Women’s Soccer Defeat Houston
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HOUSTON (SMU) – The SMU women’s soccer team defeated the Houston Cougars, 3-2, in its conference opener Thursday night behind three goals from Claire Oates. Lauren Harrington tallied two assists and Rikki Clarke also added a helper.
SMU (5-5-0, 1-0-0 AAC) has now won four of its last five matches after starting the year 1-4-0.
Making Oates’ three-goal performance even more impressive is that the freshman tallied all three goals in the first 11 minutes of the game.
“Three goals in nine minutes is pretty special,” said Head Coach Chris Petrucelli. “That’s something that doesn’t happen very often.”
Just two minutes into the game, Oates capitalized on a Harrington corner kick to put the Mustangs up, 1-0. Harrington’s corner went high towards the back post where she found Oates who headed it past Houston goalkeeper Jordan Brown.
Minutes later, in the 10th minute, Harrington and Oates connected again on a corner kick to increase the SMU lead to two. Harrington lofted another ball towards the back post and Oates was there to drive a header over the hands of Brown.
In the 11th minute, the freshman midfielder continued her early barrage of goals. Clarke danced her way past multiple Houston defenders before slipping a through ball to a cutting Oates. The Long Beach, California, native fired a low shot that deflected off of a Houston defender and rolled into the back of the net, giving Oates her first career hat trick.
Houston (1-2-4, 0-1-0 AAC) got on the scoreboard in the 29th minute when Meghan Brascia capitalized on
a free kick just outside of the box. Brascia’s shot deflected off of a scrum of players and sailed just past the fingertips of SMU goalkeeper Lissi Lonsberry.
The Mustangs would carry the 3-1 lead into halftime. SMU outshot Houston, 6-5, in the opening segment and tallied two corner kicks to Houston’s zero.
In the second half, the Cougars were able to pull within one when Lexa Green was able to beat Lonsberry in the 61st minute. Green received a short pass Hailey Kirkwood and buried her shot into the upper left corner of the net.
For the remainder of the game, the Mustang defense, led by senior Olivia Elliott, sophomoresTaylor Barg and Taylor Jackson and freshman Harrington, thwarted numerous chances for the Cougars as they searched for the equalizer. In the waning minutes, Lonsberry made two key stops on long-distance shots from Houston to preserve the SMU lead.
Lonsberry finished with four saves, three of which came in the second half.
“We were able to hold on,” said Petrucelli about his defense. “Lissi (Lonsberry) made a great save, tipping the one over the bar. It was one of those games where you’re up a goal and you’re just thinking about defending.”
With three yellow cards and 24 total fouls, the contest was a chippy, hard-fought battle.
“We’ve had a number of games like this with teams being physical and making it difficult for us,” said Petrucelli. “But, we were able to withstand it and, obviously, scoring the three early goals helped.”
The Mustangs return to Dallas for a home match on Saturday night against BYU at Westcott Field. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m. CT. For ticket information for Saturday’s contest, visit SMUtickets.com.
