Houston ties Tulsa, is trampled by SMU

In its second week of Conference USA play, UH battled Tulsa to a tie in double overtime to stop a four-game losing streak, only to let SMU slip away with a 2-1 win Sunday at Robertson Stadium.

The Mustangs came to Houston undefeated in eight games against the Cougars and left with a ninth win.

UH (4-6, 0-3-1 C-USA) drew first blood as sophomore midfielder Islara Rodriguez scored her first goal of the season. Rodriguez took off on a breakaway, outrunning Mustang defenders and zipping a well-aimed shot past SMU freshman goalie Courtney Webb in the 40th minute.

The Cougars held the lead heading into halftime, but SMU came out of the locker room with its guns up. Three minutes into the second half, Mustang freshman forward Logan May received a ball on the sideline and slipped by Cougar defenders to aim a shot into the net past senior goalie and captain Shelby Scott.

"They came out and caught us off guard," Scott said.

SMU freshman forward Devon Hermann added the game-winner in the 69th minute after she rebounded her own shot, which Scott had deflected, and put it into the net.

The Mustangs (4-7 overall) improved to an even 2-2 in conference play with the win.

Friday’s tie with Tulsa marked the Cougars’ first point in C-USA. Head coach Susan Bush and Scott were happy to have a result counting toward a bid into the conference tournament, but after the fourth overtime meeting with the Golden Hurricane, Bush said it’s turned into a somewhat tiresome tradition.

"It’s getting a bit frustrating," Bush said "I’m sure it is for (Tulsa) too."

Scott posted her fourth shutout of the year, at one point hurling herself to smother the ball at the feet of a Tulsa attacker on a breakaway. Scott caused more commotion in the goal when she had to stretch to make a save, tipping the ball to deflect off the crossbar.

"I took a step forward too early and misjudged it a bit, but I got a hand on it, so at least we didn’t get scored on," Scott said.

The Cougars continue conference play on a four-game road trip beginning with Memphis at 7 p.m. Friday.