Soccer takes on Huskies at home

After a pair of 4-0 road losses to Texas and Texas State, the Cougars have returned home for a rare Tuesday night game against Houston Baptist at Robertson Stadium.

It won’t get any easier against the Houston Baptist Huskies (5-3-0). The Huskies are a part of the Red River Athletic Conference, and they have been dominating it, particularly on offense.

In HBU’s last match Saturday against Huston-Tillotson, the Huskies scored all eight goals in the first half of its 8-0 shutout.

HBU freshman Kinsie Arnst recorded the first hat trick of her career against HT when she put three of her four shots in the goal, including the first goal of the game at the 6:01 mark.

Key for the Cougars (3-2-1) will be shutting down the Huskies’ attack in the first half and then keeping the ball away from freshman Isla Cameron at all costs.

Houston Baptist has a plus-18 goal differential in the first half of games, but only a plus-4 differential in the second half, meaning they tend to run out of gas after a little while.

Even so, Cameron has been a monster for HBU, with eight goals and an assist in just eight games played. The Cougars are going to have to keep someone in front of her at all times, she’s that dangerous.

Cameron put away two goals in two minutes against HT with senior Meredith Spencer and sophomore Amanda Hale assisting.

UH junior goalkeeper Shelby Scott will have to continue her outstanding defensive performance to put away any hope of HBU goals.

Scott’s performance Friday against Texas allowed her to tie the school record of 15 saves.

Freshman midfielder Crystal Trevino recorded the Cougars’ only two shots on goal against Texas.

Freshmen forwards Lauri Byrne and Islara Rodriguez have been continuously taking their game to the goal as they combined for 11 of 14 shots and four of six shots on goal against Texas State on Sunday.

While home-field advantage is with the Cougars again (3-0-1 at home) and HBU plays worse on the road (1-2-0), there is no guarantee that the Cougars will walk away with a win, especially after that shattering loss to Texas State.

They’ll have to keep the ball on HBU’s side of the field and keep the shot differential close.