The UTEP women’s soccer team will go on the road to visit Western Kentucky and Marshall on Friday and Sunday, respectively, after splitting two games at home.

It took overtime in both games this weekend at University Field to separate UTEP from North Texas and Rice—two of the top teams in Conference USA. Both games ended 1-0, with the Miners losing to North Texas, but edging out Rice.

Both the Mean Green and Owls came into their games with UTEP undefeated and on top of the conference standings.

North Texas maintained their undefeated conference record and improved their overall record to 9-3. The Mean Green took advantage of the Miners’ lack of precision in front of the goal, including a missed penalty kick in regulation, and was only able to beat UTEP goalkeeper Sarah Dilling through a penalty kick of their own.

“We played a great game, we played better than them,” said UTEP forward Bri Barreiro. “We were unlucky when finishing some chances.”

Rice arrived in El Paso with a nine-game winning streak, in which they had outscored their opponents 19-2. The Owls’ consistent and convincing performances were getting them some national attention–receiving several votes in the national rankings. The stats had little to no effect on the Miners, who relied on their terrific defense en route to a game-winning overtime goal by freshman Jeanna Mullen to hand Rice just their second loss of the season and their first in Conference USA.

“Tay(O’ Hayre) hit a perfect ball, Aleah (Davis), a perfect header and I just found myself in front of goal,” Mullen said. “I didn’t really think about it, just headed it. Next thing I know it’s in and we’re celebrating.”

The shutout was the sixth of the season for the Miners and tied Dilling for the all-time lead in that category with 18 over her career.

UTEP will now head on the road as they continue their hunt for a conference tournament berth. The team will visit Western Kentucky in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on Friday and then travel to Huntington, West Virginia, on Sunday to play Marshall.

“They’re gonna be tough teams, but we have to take them one at a time,” said Miner head coach Kevin Cross.

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers have lost two straight games after starting conference play with a win at Marshall. The Hilltoppers are one of seven teams that have just one win in conference play and have the worst goal per game percentage in the league. Like the Miners though, their strength is on defense, where they rank in the top half of the conference in goals allowed. Western Kentucky is in its first season as a member of Conference USA, moving from the Sun Belt Conference, and this will be the first meeting between the two schools ever.

The matchup will be interesting as the Miners are among the conference leaders in defense, relying on strong and consistent performances that start with the keeper and its back four.

“We’ve taken it to a whole new level (on defense), which is what we need to win this conference,” said senior defender Tayler O’ Hayre. “Our whole team defense has been great.”

Marshall, picked to finish seventh in the preseason polls, is one of the four teams in conference USA to have a tie on their record. With an overall record of 4-4-1, the Herd will begin their final home stand of the season on Friday against UTSA before hosting UTEP, UAB and Middle Tennessee. There have been seven meetings between the Miners and Marshall, with UTEP having a 5-2 edge. The last time they met, however, back in 2012, the Herd defeated the Miners
4-1 in Huntington.

After a weekend of high competition, Cross’ team is firm on their conference championship aspirations and confident they can play with anybody, anywhere. The challenge is duplicating their performances at home on the road.

“It’ll be huge for us. Are we gonna be the team we were this weekend or are we gonna be a different team?” Cross said. “We got to show on the road that we can be the same team.”

Luis Gonzalez may be reached at [email protected]