PRAIRIE VIEW, Tex.-The Arkansas-Pine Bluff Lady Lions soccer team improved their conference record to 2-0 after completing a sweep of the Texas Southern Lady Tigers and the Prairie View A&M Lady Panthers. UAPB defeated TSU 1-0 and PVAMU 4-1 respectively as they played dominant soccer throughout the duration of the weekend.
Friday night the Lady Lions squared off against Texas Southern University for their first divisional conference game. The Lady Lions were aggressive from the start as they played most of the first 45 minutes in TSU's half of the field. Overall, the Lady Lions out shot TSU 23 to 9. Nicole Parks-Powell was very dangerous around goal with eight shots with one finding the crossbar in the second half.
“We had great chances to put the game away in the second half”, said Coach Mazza.
At the end of 90 minutes of play, the Lady Lions went into their sixth overtime match this season. All the overtime match experiences paid off when Noah Mithrush fired a shot from inside the box into the top left corner off an Austen Keithley assist.
“It felt great to finally win a game in overtime. It felt even better that it was a conference game”, Mazza said.
The match was not easy for the Lady Lions due to the fact that they had to overcome bad weather conditions as well as playing on a turf field which they had never played on before.
“It was great to see how the girls overcame these obstacles on the road against a tough TSU team and I am proud of them for that accomplishment,” Mazza said.
Sunday afternoon the Lady Lions played against Prairie View A&M for their second divisional conference game in Texas. The Lady Lions did not wait long to score as Nicole Parks-Powell took a pass from Jade West and struck the ball high to the right corner of the goal. This was Nicole's first goal of the season and it came in the 9th minute of play.
Shortly after, at the 22nd minute, midfielder Noah Mithrush headed the ball forward to a sprinting Parks-Powell who received the ball at her feet and slotted the ball into the bottom right corner of goal. It was quite a impressive finish for her second goal of the game. At the end of the first half the Lady Lions were up 2-0.
In the second half the Lady Lions came out with intensity and a strong desire to put the game out of reach for the Lady Panthers. In the 49th minute, Taryn Wright fired a shot pass goal keeper Jessica Garcia off a pass from Jade West. That was West's second assist of the game. UAPB finished the scoring when Nicole Parks-Powell tallied her third goal of the game - achieving an impressive hat trick – off a header from defender Chelsea Gordon in the 63rd minute of play.
Prairie View scored in the 70th minute off a dead ball which found it way into the back of the net during a mêlée in front of goal. The Lady Lions were too much for the Lady Panthers to handle that day and the match ended with a score of 4-1.
“We came out ready to play this match and the result showed. Prairie View has become a lot better and I know that we had to be on our game to get this result. It's encouraging to see Nicole finishing her opportunities on goal. I was thrilled with how we came out and played today and I know the girls are very proud of themselves,” Mazza said.
Overall, this weekend was a tremendous success for the Lady Lions. As of now the Lady Lions are the top team in the west with a divisional conference record of 2-0.
The Lady Lions will have the next few days off before returning to their home soccer field later this week in cross-divisional conference action versus Alabama A&M on Thursday at 3 pm and Alabama State on Friday at 4 pm.
