Texans pull late game tie with SFA

BY  JAXON HANSARD / Multimedia Journalist

Tarleton State University’s Women’s soccer team made the trek to Nacogdoches to face off against Stephen F. Austin. 

The Texans arrived in Nacogdoches with a 3-5-2 (Win-Loss-Tie) record coming off a dominant 5-0 win against Prairie View A&M.  This will be the second meeting between Tarleton and Stephen F. Austin, 10-27-2022 was the first meeting between the two in-conference purple schools where the Texans came out victories with 4-1 margin of victory.

 This matchup for the Texans will be at SFA, which isn’t the most encouraging given the team’s 0-3 away record. 

Pete Cuadrado is the head coach of the Texan soccer team. This is his third season with Tarleton and his twenty-first season as an NCAA head coach. 

“I love our team, such a great group to be around,” Cuadrado said. “They have bonded so closely since day 1 of our inaugural season, which has made it a blast to work with them.” 

Last year was Tarleton’s first year to have a women’s soccer team in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) with their first season record of 6-9-3 with seven of the last nine matchups ending with losses for the Texans sinking their conference record of 2-7-2. Cuadrado wants to change those losses this year by instilling better traits and habits for his girls. 

“Right now, we are trying to instill toughness, hard work, and teamwork which will help our programs culture for years to come,” Cuadrado said. “Without these things it’s hard for a team to reach its full potential.”  

He has also talked about how close the team is with each other. One of star Goalkeeper Mikayla Kendall favorite moments so far from this season was a team activity as opposed to her 19 save game against Prairie View A&M to show how close this women’s soccer team is. 

“Favorite moment so far from this season my favorite moment so far this season would be when the entire team went to the Tarleton Challenge Course,” Kendall said. “It was a lot of fun getting to know my new teammates and watch the entire team grow closer throughout all the tasks we had to complete together.” 

Late Tie 

Not a loss but also not a win. The late game goal that tied the match was scored by forward Mila Bettinelli off an assist from Stephenville’s own Victoria Cameron. 

“My favorite part about playing for Tarleton is how every single person on the team treats each other like we’re a family,” Cameron said.

This is the program’s first draw in WAC play this season. The SFA lumberjacks scored early into the first half which led to them leading the game for 70 of the 90-minute game time until the Texans scored in the last five minutes. 

Of Lumberjack’s four shots, Mikayla Kendall saved three of them to extend her total of saves to 76, leading the entire WAC. Mikayla has increased her goalkeeping statistics this year with her Game average by 0.9 points from 1.91 to 2.00 and her save percentage from 0.68 to 0.80. In Mikayla’s first season, she saved 60 shots in 16 games played whereas this season with the Texans, she has already saved 76 shots in 10 games. 

This is a great improvement and consistency which is a point Coach Cuadrado is trying to tell his team this year. 

“We tell our team to get better everyday, no matter what the task is, challenge yourself to get better,” Cuadrado said.  “One thing we are looking to improve on is our consistency.” 

The Texan Soccer team’s next game is Oct. 1 at 5p.m. against Abilene Christian University.