Box Score DENTON, Texas ? North Texas improved to 8-0 in Sun Belt Conference play on Sunday afternoon by picking up a 4-1 victory over the UALR women's soccer team (4-11, 2-6). The victory improved the Mean Green's home win streak to 21 games.
“Our team had a much better effort today. We gave up a few goals in the first half off defensive mistakes that we probably wish we could get back, but other than that, I thought we played pretty well,” said UALR head coach Greg Hess. “The majority of the game was pretty even. There was a lot of back and forth and we were able to create some scoring opportunities.”
UNT (12-2-2, 8-0) took a 3-0 lead into the intermission after Brittany Cleveland got things going with an unassisted goal in the 6th minute. Heather Hutyra tallied her 12th goal of the season in the 28th minute to make it a 2-0 contest. Veronica Ayala picked up her first goal of the season in the 36th minute to extend the Mean Green's edge.
The Trojans got on the board in the 57th minute when freshman Early Villegas scored her third goal of the year on a shot from 15-yards out.
“Early's goal was probably our best goal of the season,” said Hess. “It was a volley from outside of the box that absolutely ripped the side netting.”
The Trojans went on the offensive in the second half, playing with an extra forward to try and cut into the Mean Green's lead. North Texas finally capitalized on the lineup change in the 85th minute, as Kelli Lunsford scored off a pass from Jamie Yates.
“We probably would have won the second half, 1-0, but we played with an extra forward to try and get some more offense and they were able to capitalize on that with about five minutes left,” said Hess. “But we definitely had a better showing today. I'm pretty positive coming out of this game, considering North Texas has won back-to-back Sun Belt championships and played in the last two NCAA Tournaments. We definitely hung in there.”
Freshman Jamie Laughlin played all 90 minutes in goal for the Trojans, collecting seven saves against four goals allowed. UNT's Kandice Ellis recorded four saves to pick up the win.
UALR returns to Burns Park this weekend for games against Florida Atlantic (Oct. 20) and Florida International (Oct. 22). Friday's meeting with FAU is slated for a 7 p.m. start time.
