Texan Soccer begins four-game road trip this weekend at NM State, Sam Houston

The Teams: Tarleton Texans (4-3-3, 0-1-2 WAC) vs. New Mexico State Aggies (4-3-3, 1-1-2 WAC); Sam Houston Bearkats (1-6-2, 0-3-1 WAC)
Where: Las Cruces, New Mexico; Huntsville, Texas
Stadium: Nm State Soccer Complex (Friday); Pritchett Stadium (Sunday)
Time: 8 p.m. CT (Friday); 1 p.m. CT (Sunday)
Video: WAC International (Friday); ESPN+ (Sunday)
 
TEXAN SOCCER GAME DAY
After spending five of the last six matches at home, Tarleton will now turn their focus to the road with a four-game road trip beginning with a visit to New Mexico State Friday. The Texans will visit the Aggies for an 8 p.m. CT / 7 p.m. MT showdown in Las Cruces before coming back to Texas for a 1 p.m. matinee against Sam Houston in Huntsville Sunday.
 
There will be live stats and video available for both matches. Friday’s match will be streamed on WACinternational.tv with Sunday’s match returning to ESPN+.
 
ABOUT TARLETON SOCCER
Women’s Soccer is one of the newest programs at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas. The addition of the program was announced on January 19, 2021 after the university made the move to NCAA Division I and the Western Athletic Conference in July 2020. Pete Cuadrado was named the first head coach of the program after successful tenures at North Dakota State and the University of Wyoming.
 
QUICK KICKS

• Tarleton State University is in the midst of its NCAA debut season as part of its first year of existence. Tarleton made the decision to add women’s soccer after making the leap from NCAA Division II to Division I on July 1, 2020. Tarleton made the announcement and the search for a head coach on January 19, 2021.
• Tarleton has been the aggressor offensively. The Texans have 114 shot attempts with 58 on goal for a 50.9 shot on goal percentage. In comparison, Tarleton has nearly more shots on goal (58) as their opponents have total shots (77) this season.
• Since beginning WAC play on Sept. 18, Tarleton has put up 24 shots in their last three matches with 12 on goal. With 11 shots against Utah Tech Friday, the Texans put up double-digit shot attempts for the fifth time this season.
• Kiki Baurmann, one of only two seniors on the roster, has been every bit as good as advertised this season. Baurmann has been the catalyst for the Texans on offense. She remains tied for the WAC lead in total assists (5) and assists per game (0.50). All five of her assists this season have come at home.
• Mikayla Kendall put together arguably two of her best matches of the season last weekend. As the Texans welcomed the top two teams in the WAC standings to Stephenville, Kendall stepped up big. The freshman shutout Utah Tech Friday night in a 0-0 draw before surrendering a lone score in a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to league-leading Southern Utah on Sunday. Kendall totaled 10 saves in last weekend’s two matches, which is the most over any two-game stretch for Kendall this season. Kendall’s shutout Friday night was her fourth solo shutout of the season.

 
WAC PRESEASON POLL
Tarleton was picked to finish 12th in the Western Athletic Conference preseason coaches’ poll. With 21 points, the Texans were picked last behind Southern Utah with 25 votes. Grand Canyon was picked to finish atop the league standings with 117 votes, followed closely by Utah Valley (110).
 

 
“I can’t believe they picked a team who has never lost a game to finish last, but I guess we’ll just have to go out and compete,” said Cuadrado with a smile.
 
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FOREVER
Tarleton made its long-awaited home debut, and it did not disappoint. Tarleton set an impressive standard for attendance with 2,512 Texan fans in attendance for this historic night. A few other home facility firsts for the record book include:
 

 
NOTABLES

• BUILDING FROM SCRATCH: Pete Cuadrado was named the first head coach in Tarleton Soccer history on May 21, 2021. The veteran head coach made the choice to return home to Texas where he played his college career at TCU. Cuadrado was tasked with beginning a program from scratch with one full year to put together a complete roster. The first addition to the soccer team for head coach Pete Cuadrado was assistant coach Rex Carrell. The former Division III standout joined Cuadrado as a volunteer assistant coach for the first year before signing on as the first full-time assistant coach this summer. Cuadrado rounded out his coaching staff with Delaney Castor, who wrapped up her career as the most prolific goalkeeper in Howard Payne University (D3) history. Castor joined the staff in May.
• OPENING AGAINST THE BISON: Pete Cuadrado‘s first official game as the head coach of Tarleton’s newest program came against a former team that he led to new heights – North Dakota State. Tarleton opened against the Bison, where Cuadrado was the head coach for nine seasons and led NDSU out of NCAA Division II and into the Division I ranks. During his time with the Bison, he went 93-62-18 and was named the 2005 NCAA Division I Independent Coach of the Year. He is still the Bison’s all-time wins leader. Tarleton received an unwelcome greeting from Pete Cuadrado‘s former club in their NCAA debut on August 19 when North Dakota State scored in the opening minute, but Tarleton battled back and got a goal from distance by Adriana Alonso-Gomez to give Tarleton a tie in its debut outing.
• WINS IN LOW PLACES: Tarleton recorded the first-ever win in school history off the foot of freshman Rylee Low. After tying NDSU in the season opener, Low put her first career goal in the top right corner from distance in the 85′ to put the first official win in the Tarleton history books against Nicholls State.
• HELLWIG COMES IN CLUTCH: Macy Hellwig’s first career goal was one to write home about. With time winding down against ACU in the WAC opener, the freshman from the Great White North found the back of the net in the 83′ to tie the match. Hellwig pumped the brakes at the top of the box, reversed course, and ripped her shot into the bottom left corner of the goal to lead Tarleton to a draw against the Wildcats.
• SCORING FROM DISTANCE: Tarleton’s first two goals in program history came from beyond the 18-yard box. Adriana Alonso-Gomez scored the first goal in school history to tie the game against North Dakota State and Rylee Low hit the game-winner against Nicholls State last Sunday. Both goals came from downtown, as did Kiki Baurmann’s game-winner in the exhibition against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The first home goal in program history in the third match of the season was the first goal for Tarleton inside the box.
• WALKING ON: Lindsey Schiller joined the team ahead of the season opener as a walk-on tryout player. Schiller, a junior transfer from Howard Payne (D3), was the only tryout athlete to earn a spot on the full-time roster. She played two seasons at Howard Payne where she played in 26 matches and scored four goals. She totaled 28 shots with 13 on goal for a .464 SOG percentage. She was teammates with her current coach Delaney Castor. Since joining the Texans, Schiller has already appeared in seven games and scored her first goal against UTPB.
• FROSH FOOTWORK: Tarleton has had 11 different Texans score a goal this season. Of Tarleton’s 19 goals scored this season, 11 have come from six different freshmen. Mila Bettinelli and Avery Harr are two of the Texans tied for the team lead in goals this season with three each. The 11 Texans with a goal to their credit this season have done so on 100 combined shots.
• AGENT DOUBLE-0 KENDALL: Mikayla Kendall is establishing herself as one of the top goalkeepers in the WAC. The freshman stopper has spent 810 minutes between the pipes for Tarleton this season, making 22 saves and being part of five total shutouts (four of which she was in goal for the entire 90 minutes).
• HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE: The Texans have now hosted six games (3-1-2) in Stephenville in their NCAA history have four shutouts. Tarleton has outscored opponents 15-2 at home this season and have put up 81 shots. The Texan defense has also been superb in Stephenville, allowing a mere 36 shot attempts and only 17 on goal.
• CASTOR GOES BACK BETWEEN THE PIPES: With Rylee Bloomfield currently working back from an early season injury and Mikayla Kendall unavailable this weekend due to injury protocols, Tarleton is in need of a new goalkeeper. Head coach Pete Cuadrado had to look no farther than his own bench to find quite the resumé. Assistant coach Delaney Castor has been officially added to the active roster. Since arriving at Tarleton in July, Castor has been enrolled in graduate courses in pursuit of a master’s degree and left Howard Payne with one additional year of eligibility remaining. Castor has been officially added to the roster by the NCAA and will likely see most of the action in goal for Tarleton this weekend. At Howard Payne, Castor was the conference Goalkeeper of the Year, all-conference, and all-region honoree during her HPU career. Castor’s name is smattered across the Yellow Jackets’ school record books. She broke 13 school records over the course of her four-year run in Brownwood, including career saves (453), career saves per game (7.6), career save percentage (.809), single-season saves (159) and single-game saves (24).

 
FROM COACH CUADRADO

• ON THE HOME OPENER: “The day we took the job, (Thursday) was the day I circled on my calendar. The excitement surrounding it for the last 12 months was what we talked about when we were recruiting. It is one of the best memories I’ll have, and I’ve done this a long time.”
• ON WHAT HIS TEAMS ARE KNOWN FOR: “We should be great defending. We should be organized when we defend. We should be deadly on our dead balls, and those are starting to come. That’s how I’ve made my career. Defending is something you can always count on in the game of soccer because it’s an effort thing. If you bring the defense and bring the effort, that’s how you get on the field for this program.”
• ON HIS SENIORS: “(Our seniors) are two veteran grad transfers. Macie (Witter) has been a great leader on and off the field. She comes from Georgia in the SEC program with a great pedigree. Kiki is a great person and player. She’s super technical and can get in behind people. She scored one of the best goals I’ve seen against Corpus. I got quite a few texts and phone calls from all over the country after that goal. She’s irreplaceable off the field for us. Unfortunately, we only get her for one year but we get Macie for two. That will be huge for us.”

 
LOOKING AHEAD TO THE REMAINING HOME SLATE
Following the upcoming four-game road trip, Tarleton will host two more home games in Stephenville this season. Tarleton will recognize military personnel on Oct. 21 and their senior class on Oct. 23 in the home finale.
 

 
FREE ADMISSION ALL SEASON
To help us celebrate the first season of Tarleton Soccer, admission to all home matches this season are free for all fans.
 
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
Tarleton is off next week and will return to action with a west-coast road trip to California Baptist and Grand Canyon on Oct. 14-16.