SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – The University of the Incarnate Word women's soccer team hosted the Mean Green from the University of North Texas in Benson Stadium on Friday night. The Cardinals (2-1) dropped a 2-0 decision to the visitors.

Each team entered the match without giving up a goal in their first two games.  In the first half the Mean Green (3-0) had several opportunities on the Cardinals goalkeeper ?Karly Brightwell (Houston/Elkins HS).  She closed the half with four saves and several crucial stops.  UNT attacked the goal with ten shots and five corner kicks, but the UIW defense stood strong.

The tide turned quickly in the second half, the Mean Green broke the UIW defense when Karla Pineda sent a crisp through ball to Taylor Torres who was 1-on-1 with the goalkeeper.  She finished it low and to the left of Heather Kowalik (Boerne/Champion HS) in the 46th minute.  The Cardinals tried to respond right away, but were turned away.

In the 53rd minute, the Mean Green secured the game when the Cardinals gave up another corner kick, one of 10 throughout the game.  Pineda sent the ball into the box and found Marchelle Davis who jumped above a UIW defender and found the back of the net off a header.  Davis led both teams with six shots, followed by UNT teammate Anna Flobeck and UIW's Nikki Popa (San Antonio/Reagan HS).

"North Texas is a very good side," said UIW head coach Anne Felts.  "We have been looking forward to seeing how we matched up and we came out of this game with a lot of positives.  We are playing very good soccer right now and we will continue to get better and better.  We knew this was going to be a game where we needed to take care of the details to get a result and that's what we saw.  It's a tough loss, but we got better tonight."

Karey Tylman (San Antonio/Alamo Heights HS) provided a little spark off the bench for the Cardinals by creating a pair of shots on goal that required saves from Jackie Kerestine.  Kowalik and Brightwell each had four saves for the Cardinals.

The Cardinals will be playing their second game of the weekend against Prairie View A&M on Sunday at noon at Benson Stadium. 
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