UTRGV shuts out Wildcats

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Women’s Soccer Team is triumphant in its first Western Athletic Conference game against Abilene Christian University 1-0 tonight at the Soccer and Track & Field Complex on the Edinburg campus.

The Vaqueras record is 3-4-2 overall and 1-0-0 in conference.

With tonight’s loss, Abilene’s record became 5-4-1 overall and 0-1-0 conference.

The first half was a battle for control of the ball, with the Wildcats taking over for most of the time.

Freshman goalkeeper Anais van Doesburg finished the game with three saves, two of those occurring during the first half.

The second half started with the score still being 0-0 until 52 minutes into the game when freshman midfielder Linnea Eld scored UTRGV’s first and winning goal.

Eld finished the game having played the whole 90 minutes and with one shot on goal and one goal.

Women’s Soccer head coach Mark Foster said he was delighted with the win.

“There [were] times when we played some really good soccer, and then there [were] times where it was old-fashioned grits,” Foster said.

He said Abilene played a good game and the Wildcats were not giving up much of their side of the field.

“Midfield was going to be key because of their system,” Foster said. “And that’s the only area when we did have good moments in the game. I think that’s when we were on top of the midfield.”

He said set plays are key for the team, and Eld had confidence and stepped up to kick the set plays.

“I think we started seven or eight freshmen,” Foster said. “… It’s not just a freshman team, the seniors were leading as well. … Tonight was a collective effort I think.”

Foster said confidence and for good things to happen to the team are key.

“It creates buy-in,” he said. “… People start to see the vision coming true. Just delighted for the girls to get that boost of confidence tonight, because it was a win and it was a deserved win.”

Junior Wildcat forward Chayse Thorn ended the game with two shots on goal and an 87-minute playtime.

Eld said scoring the goal felt amazing because she was close to scoring a goal in the first half.

“I got a free kick almost as close,” she said. “But now it [went] in, it was so nice.”

Eld said it was a lot of pressure being in charge of the free kicks.

“It was amazing just to know that now we got a chance to win this game,” she said.

 Van Doesburg was happy with the way the team played tonight.

“We got a clean sheet,” she said. “We got a really good goal in, and I think we just stuck to the plan from the beginning to the end.”

The goalkeeper said keeping good communication with the defenders was important.

“Sometimes it gets, like, a bit messy,” Van Doesburg said. “That’s what, like, stopped us from letting a goal in.”

She also felt tonight’s win helped with the team’s confidence.

“This win means a lot to us,” Van Doesburg said. “Now we have something to build on for the next games.”

Next up for the Vaqueras is a conference game against Tarleton State University at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex on the Edinburg campus.

The team will play its last conference game at home against Stephen F. Austin State University on Oct. 22. Following that will be the WAC Tournament from Oct. 29 to Nov. 4, then the NCAA Tournament from Nov. 10 to Dec. 3.