This weekend, the soccer team hits the road for two conference matches against Northwestern State and Central Arkansas.
The women played a similar slate of road games like this when they traveled to Stillwater to face Oklahoma State and Dallas to play SMU.
“These road games are just business trips for us,” sophomore defender Caity Acosta said. “We have our minds set on winning these games, getting the job done and coming back home.
The Wildcats head into the weekend having scored 18 total goals as a team with six different players tied for the team lead of two, and six other players with one goal each.
The six players with two goals include senior defender Kelsie Roberts, senior forward Natalie Throneberry, senior midfielder Leslie Snider, sophomore forward Dylan Owens, sophomore midfielder Chelsea Reedy, and freshman midfielder Shay Johnson.
“We’ve been putting in good solid work during practice to prepare us for this weekend,” Acosta said. “It’s nice coming out of last weekend with two wins, we just have to stay focused and continue to play as a team like we’ve been doing.”
Johnson had been healing a sprained ankle the past few weeks, however, she will be able to return to play this weekend.
Senior goalkeeper Sydney Newton has made a total of 41 saves coming into the matches and has put up a 0.86 goals against average as well as a .854 save percentage.
“We treat road games like any other game,” said junior defender Chantal Kinsey. “There are different challenges that come with being on the road, but our team is prepared and excited for this weekends games. As for preparation, we worked on movement off the ball and finishing our shots on goal. Other than that we prepared for these games just like any other.”
Northwestern State has scored a total of 15 goals this season with freshman forward April Trowbridge leading the team with an impressive five goals.
Junior midfielder Esdeina Gonzalez leads the team in assists with four. Junior goalkeeper Alex Latham has made a total of 62 saves and has posted a 1.37 goals against average along with a .827 save percentage.
For Central Arkansas, the team has put up a total of 23 goals this season with sophomore forward Ashley Smith leading the Bears with six goals and sophomore Camille Basset has five.
Junior midfielder Alex Moore leads the team in assists with five. Sophomore goalkeeper Lauren Mercuri and junior goalkeeper Anna Hughes have received equal playing time this year. Mercuri leads with 30 saves while Hughes leads with six wins.
“Although we are at a disadvantage being on the road all weekend, we are excited and ready to play the way we know how to against these teams,” junior midfielder Megan Baer said. “It’s going to be competitive like it always is, but we have the opportunity to be 5-0 in conference. We have been efficient in practice all week working on areas of the game we know we can improve and focusing on our main goal as a team, to win conference.”
The Wildcats (4-6-1, 3-0-0) will go face Northwestern State (5-5-0, 2-1-0) in Louisiana on Friday and will go face Central Arkansas (8-3-0, 3-0-0) in Arkansas on Sunday. Last season ACU defeated NSU 2-0 and UCA 1-0.
