The UTEP soccer team came into its final game of the season after losing a close 1-0 game to conference rival North Texas Oct. 23. The team’s final game would come on the road Oct. 28 against another conference rival in the University of Texas at San Antonio (9-5-4, 4-3-3 C-USA) who had already punched their ticket to the conference tournament.
The game itself proved to be another close matchup as it came down to a single goal where UTSA scored in minute nineteen. While the Miners fought throughout the match, it was unable to prevail. UTSA went on to win the game 1-0.
Miners’ senior goalkeeper Maria Scott had four saves while graduate student forward/midfielder Sophia Lewis had three shots with two of them being on goal. Junior forward Tessa Carlin also had two shots with one of them being on goal.
The Miners season stretched a little over two months and consisted of 18 games with two exhibitions. Coming into the season with 16 new players and 12 returning players, the Miners went 4-11-3 overall, with a 1-7-2 record in conference play. Their four wins came against the University of Las Vegas, Wyoming, the University of Incarnate Word and their sole conference win came over Middle Tennessee. UTEP’s three draws this season was an example of resiliency.
Junior forward Tessa Carlin led the team with 6 goals on the season, while freshman forward Mina Rodriguez had two goals, each of them game winning. Sophomore forward Tay Lopez additionally had two goals and graduate student Sophia Lewis, sophomore Justice Tillotson, and junior Emerson Kidd each had one goal on the season.
Tessa Carlin led the team in total points scored with 10, while Mina Rodriguez led the team in assists with three. Senior goalkeeper Mariah Scott led the team in saves with 80, which places her second in Conference-USA. Freshman goalkeeper Alaina Gilbert also contributed one save in the two games she played.
A bright spot to leave the season, junior forward Tessa Carlin, was named to the 2022 Conference USA Women’s Soccer All-Academic Team, in which she’ll be part of the first team after achieving a 3.88 GPA as a biology major. This would make her the first UTEP player to receive first-team accolades since 2016.
Stats provided by UTEP Athletics.
Joel Molina is a contributor and may be reached at [email protected].
