EL PASO, Texas – The Louisiana Tech women's soccer team fought to a hard-earned 2-2 draw in El Paso Sunday afternoon against UTEP to earn their fourth point and remain unbeaten in their first week of Conference USA action.
LA Tech (3-5-2) took a 1-0 lead off
Flavie Dube's third goal this season and held the 1-0 advantage after 45 minutes of play. The Techsters out shot UTEP (3-4-3) 8-2 in the first half.
In the second, the Miners put two goals past the Tech defense, one in the 55' to tie the match at 1-1 off Tessa Carlin's rebound goal, and another just eight minutes later from Taya Lopez to take the 2-1 lead.
Tech continued to fight, making changes to the lineup to keep the legs fresh, and found the reward off the right foot of
Carmen Suarez just outside the top of the box for her second goal of the season to equalize things at 2-2 with just six minutes remaining.
Dube was credited with the first assist of her career and now leads the team in points, with seven.
Tech was able to create one final shot from
Josie Studer off of
Maci Geltmeier's cross, but the shot was wide left of the net to end the match at 2-2, to earn the program's first point in three tries in El Paso.
Tech doubled UTEP in shots (14-7) and held a 5-2 advantage in shots on goal while each team earned two corner opportunities.
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Steve Voltz…
"I'm very proud of our determination to find a way to come out of there with a point after giving up the lead and finding ourselves down a goal late. We have to find a way to be more consistent, especially when playing with the lead, but the fact is we remain unbeaten in the conference, and every point during this part of the season matters.
We will get on a plane tomorrow to fly to Charlotte, take a day to rest and recover, then train for another tough conference road match on Thursday."
NOTABLES
• LA Tech now leads the all-time series 4-2-2 against UTEP.
• The draw earned Tech's first-ever point in matches played in El Paso. Tech is now 0-2-1.
• Tech matches their best start to conference play with four points through two games.
• LA Tech is now 3-1-1 this season when scoring first.
•
Flavie Dube scored her third goal this season and was credited with her first career assist.
• Dube leads the team in goals (3) and points (7).
•
Sophie Fijneman,
Laura Ogando, and
Rebecca Lancaster played the full 90 minutes.
• Fijneman has gone the distance in eight of ten matches this season, Ogando six matches, and Lancaster two.
•
Kalli Matlock started the 20
th match of her career.
•
Josie Studer made her 50
th career appearance.
•
Erin Chung made her 40
th career appearance.
•
Carmen Suarez made her 20
th appearance.
• Freshmen
Flavie Dube and
Riley Bonadie made their 10
th career appearances.
UP NEXT
LA Tech will fly from El Paso to Charlotte, N.C. to take on the Charlotte 49ers on Thursday, Sep. 22 at 6 p.m. at Transamerica Field. The game can be seen on ESPN+.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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