Women's Soccer 10/14/2012 1:23:00 AM

Best Ever!

Box Score LAREDO, Texas – The 2012 TAMIU women’s soccer team will officially go down as the best in program history!

Saturday afternoon the Dustdevils (10-3, 5-2 HC) walloped provisional conference member McMurry University 4-0, setting a single season record with their tenth win of the season.

The win surpasses the previous mark set by the 2003 Dustdevils (9-9-3), who won nine games as a member of the NAIA’s Red River Conference.

Led by Sophomore Laure Twinem, the Dustdevils defense held McMurry to only four total shots and no shots on goal. TAMIU on the other hand racked up 24 total shots, 14 of which were on target.

Sophomore forward Jessica Parker paced TAMIU with two goals, while senior Kirsten Jennings and freshman Kandice Bernal added the final two tallies. Jennings has now scored in two consecutive matches, while Bernal picked up her first career goal as a Dustdevil.

Although the Dustdevils dominated possession from the opening whistle, a strong wind at their back kept the home team from finding their rhythm in the opening half. The game went to break with the score knotted at zero.

The final 45 minutes was a different story as TAMIU bombarded the McMurry keeper with 13 shots, finding the back of the net four times.

The opening goal came in the 56^th minute, when Parker redirected a header from Twinem into the net with a header of her own off a corner kick by Bernal.

Just six minutes later, Alyssa Perez sent a high cross into the box which was volleyed home by Bernal to give TAMIU a 2-0 advantage.

Karina Garcia set up Parker for her second goal of the match in the 68^th minute, before Jennings ended the scoring shooting on an open net after taking a pass from Sam Zerilli and dribbling around the McMurry keeper at minute 74.

The milestone is just one more for this record breaking group, who have already clinched the first DII post season appearance in school history, set a program record with seven consecutive wins, and surpassed their all-time single season DII win total of four.

The team now sits at 10-3 on the season, with all three losses coming against nationally ranked opponents.

Senior midfielder Kirsten Jennings has experienced both the high’s and low’s in her time at TAMIU and pointed to off the field chemistry as one of the biggest improvements from last season.

“Last season we really lacked that off-the-field bond. The older girls on the team had an attitude of “this is my turf” towards the younger players and it affected our on field performance. As a senior, I just want us to be successful. We made some big changes in the offseason, and the new girls have done an amazing job… we couldn’t ask for more. It feels awesome to have accomplished so much this year, especially because we have such great team chemistry now.”

The Dustdevils have five games remaining on their 2012 calendar, four of which are on the road. The team will kick off their road trip October 18, traveling to Wichita, Kansas to take on Newman University before moving on to face Oklahoma Christian.

The ladies will wrap up the four game road stretch with back-to-back games against nationally ranked Dallas Baptist and St. Edward’s, two teams the Dustdevils will inevitably see again in the post season.

“We realize that DBU and St. Ed’s are good teams, but when we played them the first time round, I think we played a bit timid," said Jennings. "Now that we know what we’re up against, I think we have a much better chance to pull off the upset.”

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