PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas -- Unable to break through the Prairie View A&M defense for nearly 87 minutes, the University of the Incarnate Word Women's Soccer team got the clutch play it needed from
Joella Livingston, who drove home a late goal to lead the Cardinals to a 1-0 win in their season opener on Wednesday.
Statistically, UIW dominated wire-to-wire. Prior to the game, Cardinal coach Jake Plant stated that "the ceiling of how good we can be defensively is really, really high" and his squad proved it Wednesday, holding the Panthers without a single shot on goal the entire game.
But Prairie View nearly escaped with a draw thanks to a spectacular performance in goal by Nenah Jackson, who stayed consistently aggressive against the Cardinal attack, making 12 saves, many of them of the diving variety.
But set up with a free kick, UIW was finally able to break the seal.
After receiving a pass,
Montanna Mathews pushed the ball back to Livingston, who found just enough room to get a clean shot, which she powered into the upper right-hand corner of the net, just past Jackson's outstretched arm.
The game-winner was just the second career goal for Livingston, the other also coming against Prairie View A&M
in a 5-0 Cardinal win a season ago. Incarnate Word has allowed just one goal in its last six meetings with Prairie View A&M, going 6-0 in the process.
UIW is unbeaten in its last four season openers (3-0-1) and improved to 18-16-3 all-time in opening games.
The Cardinals will try to improve to 2-0 in their home opener Sunday, as they'll welcome Texas A&M San Antonio to Gayle and Tom Benson Stadium at 7 p.m.
