UTRGV defeats Texas Southern with 2 second-half goals

The UTRGV Women’s Soccer Team earned its second home win of the season by shutting out Texas Southern University tonight at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex, equaling last year’s home record. 

After a scoreless first half, UTRGV came out shooting with junior midfielder Anna Barkey scoring a long-distance goal in the 48th minute. Redshirt sophomore midfielder Elina Seppälä made the assist. 

“I saw that I had the opportunity,” Barkey said. “So, I just took a touch and hit it with my left foot, and I was pretty glad it went in.”

The second goal came in the 62nd minute by midfielder graduate student Victoria Mayo from a free kick off  the left sideline that had just the right amount of height to overcome the leaping Texas Southern University goalkeeper, Alexis Espino.   

UTRGV Women’s Soccer head coach Glad Bugariu said he was quite pleased with the performance but had hoped his team could have scored more goals. 

“I thought the score line didn’t reflect how well we played and how well we dominated,” Bugariu said. “I think it was complete domination from start to finish. I would’ve liked to score more goals but, in the end, we kept the ball really well [and] we never let the opponent in the match.”

UTRGV outshot Texas Southern University 17 shots to 6.  

Barkey also said she thought the team dominated throughout the game. 

“I think we possessed the ball very well,” she said. “We dominated and were able to build the ball from the back all the way up to the front, so we were able to get our chances.” 

UTRGV now sits at 2-2 in the season. With their second home win, the Vaqueras equal last season’s home win record of 2-4-2. 

Asked how it felt to win their second home game of the season, Bugariu replied, “Traditionally, we’ve always been quite good at home and want to continue winning at home. That’s a staple of our program.” 

Barkey said the team wants to put an emphasis on winning home games this season. 

“We want to win the home games,” she said. “We want a crowd to come and want to watch us play. So, as long as we keep winning the home games, we’ll be happy.” 

Tigers head coach Lindsay Vera, who was an assistant coach for the UTRGV Women’s Soccer Team from 2014-2017, told The Rider it was surreal coming back to face her old team. 

“It’s a little surreal when I showed up today knowing that I had to walk to the other side of the field to warm up,” she said. 

Vera said the Tigers did all right tonight and that playing against UTRGV brought out new points to work on. 

“We’re taking away some stuff that we got to work on,” she said.  “We got some players coming straight out of quarantine and stuff like that. So, they kind of shook that off a little bit. It was good for us but just defensive moments and moments of transition, I think we can do better.”

Texas Southern University now sits at 0-3 for the season. 

The UTRGV Women’s Soccer Team will travel on Sunday to Corpus Christi to face off against Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi at 7 p.m. in the second match of the South Texas Showdown. 

“Corpus Christi is a very difficult game, completely different challenge,” Bugariu said. “Those games are always very intense. They will be quite a difficult opponent and, of course, we’re looking forward to it but, you know, it’s gonna be a battle.”