TEXARKANA, TX---The USW Women's Soccer program will have a chance for revenge on Friday afternoon. The Lady Mustangs will face LSU-Alexandria in the semi-finals of the 2019 RRAC Tournament. LSU-Alexandria defeated USW 1-0 on October 26th, the final day of the regular season, preventing the Lady Mustangs from winning the Regular Season title and earning them the #1 seed in the tournament. Instead the #3 Lady Mustangs hosted #6 UHV on November 2nd in the quarter-finals of the tournament and earned a 2-0 victory behind a dominating performance from their defense and high-octane offense. The Lady Mustangs only allowed 1 total shot for the Lady Jaguars, while they were able to get off 15 total shots on net.
Head Coach
D'Angelo Garcia still has the match from October 26th in his mind, but he knows that the conference tournament is a whole different animal. "This is the biggest game of the year. We are going up against a very physical LSU-A side that we have seen before. What happened in regular season doesn't mean anything now; the conference tournament is a different beast. We know what to expect, we know what they have, and we know what they will try to do. After a few days of training after our quarterfinal win, we are ready. LSU-A will be going on two weeks without a game which can be a advantage or disadvantage. That's a very long time off so I hope we can take advantage of that."
USW was only able to muster off 1 shot on goal in the previous meeting and were shutout for only the 4th time all season. Needless to say, the Lady Mustangs are going to need to get their juggernaut offense going from the beginning of the game. In the quarterfinal match against UHV, the Lady Mustangs were able to get an early goal in the 16th minute from
Karla Parra off a corner kick from
Priscilla Garcia. They were able to get another goal early in the 2nd half off a header from senior
Kristina Contratto from another corner kick by
Priscilla Garcia.
"The team has been enjoying the ride all tournament long" said Coach Garcia. "We have the awards banquet Thursday night which will be a night full of enjoyment. Then we have to switch into game mode Friday. This time of year is when all the fun begins. It's about who wants it more at the end of the day. We have an opportunity to do something very special this season and I firmly believe that the team is ready to go all in. It would be nice to bring some hardware back with us to Hobbs, but until then, we have some work to complete."
All 2019 RRAC Tournament matches will streamed online with links posted below.
Semifinals - Friday, Nov. 8
Eagle Field
#1 Our Lady of the Lake vs. #5 LSU Shreveport, 11 a.m.
#2 LSU Alexandria vs. #3 Southwest, 1:30 p.m.
Championship Match - Saturday, Nov. 9
Eagle Field, 5 p.m.
LIVE STREAM
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/rrac/
TOURNAMENT SITE
http://www.redriverconference.com/19/2/2019-rrac-womens-soccer-championship
