Heading into the final days of the regular-season schedule, the women’s soccer team split a pair of home matches over the weekend against the top- and bottom-ranked teams in Conference USA.
On Friday against the No. 11 University of Central Florida, SMU (6-10-1, 4-5-1 C-USA) received five saves from sophomore goalkeeper Courtney Webb, but could not stop the Knights (14-3-1, 9-1-0) from scoring 10 minutes into the second half for a 1-0 win.
In the 56th minute, UCF forward Kim Newsome knocked in a header off a corner kick from midfielder Becca Thomas to give the Knights all the offense they would need.
And while the Mustangs were outshot 15-8, head coach Brent Erwin felt his team could have pulled off the upset.
“We were prepared to play them, and we played well enough to win the game” he said. “Unfortunately, the goal was probably something that as a team we should have done better on.”
For SMU, Friday’s game was the fourth this season against Top 25 opponents. The Mustangs took on No. 21 Oklahoma State in late August before facing the No. 16 California Golden Bears and No. 2 Portland Pilots in September.
“The teams that we played earlier in the year I think were better,” Erwin said, “so it prepares us for a game like [UCF].”
Against the University of Southern Mississippi (4-12-0, 0-10-0) on Sunday, SMU took 17 shots and received goals from four different players en route to a 4-0 shutout over the Golden Eagles.
Less than two minutes into the game, freshman forward Ryanne Lewis scored on a loose ball in front of the goal to give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead. Lewis had three of SMU’s 13 shots on goal against Southern Miss.
Forward Lauren Shepherd and midfielder Kaitlyn Eidson were each credited with their first assist of the season on the play.
Freshman forward Kenzie Scovill added her team-leading fifth goal of the year in the 44th minute to put SMU ahead by two at halftime.
“I think we did a good job,” Erwin said. “We scored early in the first half, and I thought the second goal was pretty big.”
Midfielder Leslie Briggs and defender Kristin Medeiros both scored within the first 10 minutes of the second half and the Mustangs held on for a 4-0 win.
The shutout was Webb’s fourth of the season, lowering her goals-against-average to 0.73 in the month of October.
“Our entire defense has been doing really well,” she said. “We’ve been not letting any of the little mistakes get to us.”
Webb credits the SMU defenders with helping to record her second shutout in as many weeks.
“I would trust them with anything, and they’re learning to trust me,” she said. “We’re learning to play well together.”
With one of the final two seeds in the C-USA Championship tournament on the line, SMU will play its final match of the regular season against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (7-9-2, 4-6-0) Thursday at Westcott Field.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m., and Senior Night ceremonies will follow the game.
