LAREDO, Texas – Texas A&M International women's soccer took the field for the first time ever in the Lone Star Conference Women's Soccer Tournament, but it was the visiting St. Mary's Rattlers who spoiled the party, defeating the Dustdevils 2-0 in the opening round.

Both teams battled in a defensive opening 45 minutes, with the score reading 0-0 at halftime.
 
In the first half, the Dustdevils outshot the Rattlers 5-3, with both teams putting two shots on the cage. TAMIU also led the way in corner kicks, 4-1.
 
At 57:37, St. Mary's broke the scoreless tie on what ended up being an unfortunate event for the Dustdevils. On a free kick the ball ricocheted of a TAMIU player's head and snuck past freshman goalkeeper Fabiana Solano.
 
Late in the second half, at 87:40, the Rattlers got their insurance goal from Gabby Nelson to solidify the victory.
 
For the game, both teams took 10 total shots, with St. Mary's holding a 6-4 edge in shots on goal. Corner kicks on the other hand, were vastly in favor of the Dustdevils, 11-2.
 
Freshman Andrea Castellanos led the Dustdevils offensively with three shots and two on target. Senior Valeria Macias followed with two shots and one on goal, while junior Tritch Ann Grant (one shot, one shot on goal), sophomore Vivian Martinez (one shot) and freshman Sierra Clarke (one shot) added to the stat sheet as well.
 
In her return to the net, Solano faced six shots on goal in the loss, stopping five that came her way, with the own goal being the exception on the sheet.

The Dustdevils conclude the spring 2021 season with a record of 3-4-1 and they finished 2-2-1 in conference play. Albeit a shortened campaign, TAMIU's 3-3-1 regular season record was its best regular season mark since 2014 (7-6-1), the same year it last made a conference tournament (Heartland Conference Tournament).