RUSTON – Louisiana Tech women's soccer (2-8-1, 1-0-0 CUSA) snapped a seven-match losing streak by opening Conference USA play with a 2-0 win over the UTEP Miners (3-6-1, 0-1-0 CUSA) Friday night at The Mack.
The match opened up with high intensity in an environment flooded with red in the stands of the Bulldogs' home pitch for Red Out Week. The Miners came out of the gates aggressive, posting a pair of off-target shots in the first six minutes before
Cadence Rutledge posted her first save of the night at the start of the 13th minute.
LA Tech broke the scoreless tie with just under four minutes left in the first half.
Peyton Wiseman took a shot that deflected off the UTEP keeper on the right side of the goal, where a running
Madeline Gray was there for the rebound and placed her lone shot of the match in the net while running into the Miners goalie.
The Bulldogs are now 2-0 this season when holding a lead through the first 45 minutes of the match.
After five minutes had passed to start the second half of play, Wiseman received a pass along the right sideline of their attacking end from junior captain
Madison Pensom. Wiseman dribbled down to the back line before sending a cross into the box.
The freshman's pass found the head of freshman
Abby Hanton, who had her momentum carrying her away from the goal but was able to flick the pass past the UTEP keeper, who was a few steps past the goal line and unable to reach for the shot in time.
The Bulldogs improve to 6-12-3 in all-time conference openers and 8-10-3 when opening conference play at home in program history. LA Tech also improves to 2-1 on the season when scoring twice in a match.
Rutledge earned her second clean sheet of the season and sixth of her career, as well as her third career win in goal. The senior keeper recorded four saves on 17 shots faced.
Hanton netted her second score of the season while Wiseman etched in her first career assist.
The Bulldogs now turn their attention to their first road CUSA test when they travel to Huntsville, Texas to face the Sam Houston Bearkats on Sunday, September 28 at 1 p.m. CT.
Madeline Gray after scoring her first career goal:
"Peyton shot it and I was already running into the box. I saw the shot and thought, 'I hope it comes off her hands,' and it did and I was just like let's full send it. I hit it and I looked back and Peyton is running at me, screaming, and I'm just thinking to myself, 'there's no way.' I'm still processing it, actually."
Gray on her path up to this point since arriving to Ruston as a freshman:
"Coming in as a freshman, you don't expect to play but you have to come in humble and know that you're going to learn and you'll get in when you can. Learn from other people above you, and that's exactly what happened last year. I came in when I could, but this year coming in I knew I had a year under my belt with experience—what can I contribute to the team? With that mindset, when I come to the field, I'm thinking about what I can contribute and do what I can to help my team."
Head Coach Steve Voltz following Friday's win over UTEP:
"We talked a lot this week about a response from last weekend and giving our fans and our program a win that we need and deserve. The team talked a lot about the controllables—attitude and effort, and that's what they brought. They brought the right attitude, their effort—was there mistakes there? Sure, but at the end of the day we went out and competed against a very good conference opponent and came out with a win, scored a couple goals. None of them were the prettiest, but it doesn't matter. It's just now we have that monkey off our back, and I'm so proud of the way we competed, even when UTEP had a couple chances. Took a breath, and then just took care of business. Overall, I'm just so happy for them because they do the work. They do everything in training, it's just having it fall our way, so hopefully we can ride that momentum a little bit."
Coach Voltz on what preparation looked like this week leading up to Friday's contest:
"Last week, honestly, after coming back and it was just some hot days here, there was a lot of mental stuff and recovering from non-conference play. We kept telling each other that Friday is a new season, cut the past off and move forward with our approach. We also held them accountable for the effort last Sunday. They're young players, they're going to have ups and downs, but the way they responded—we now see what's in them. Going forward—because we don't play until next Sunday—we have a lot of activities here on campus, they're going to have tomorrow and Sunday off. We'll let them get their body and their mind right, and then Monday we'll go back to work."
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