LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The New Mexico State women's soccer team starts off the Western Athletic Conference season 0-0-1 as the team settled for a 2-2 draw against CSU Bakersfield (0-0-1) on Friday afternoon.
 
It was a tough start out of the gate for the Aggies when Roadrunner Aminah Settles shot the ball around NM State goalkeeper Dmitri Fong, dealing the squad an early 1-0 deficit. Despite the early setback, the Aggies managed to outshoot CSU Bakersfield 8-7 while Fong gathered five saves.
 
"Today was opening day for conference play, so everyone was 0-0-0 coming in," head coach Freddy Delgado said. "CSU Bakersfield is a very good team and we dug ourselves a hole by allowing that goal in the first minute of play."
 
The New Mexico State offense showed aggressiveness in the second half of the match, even when CSUB's Jordan Martinez added to their lead in the 52nd minute of play. Persistence paid off for the Aggies when midfielder Aileen Galicia found the back of the net with assistance from Jody Hernandez, which cut the Roadrunner's lead to 2-1. At 87:35, Galicia made another huge play off a pass from Devin Hart to set the 2-2 equalizer and sent the match into overtime. Shots on goal were taken by each team through two overtime segments, but NM State and CSU Bakersfield ultimately settled for the tie.   
 
"We made a mistake and they capitalized with that second goal, but our girls kept plugging away," said Delgado. "We kept pressing and I'm just so proud of the effort we gave. Aileen scored the first goal and that was a burst for us. Then we scored our second goal and even going into overtime, I really thought we had the momentum. The work ethic of this team is just unbelievable. Aileen had a great game today and so did a lot of our players."
 
The Aggies continue WAC action on Sunday, Oct. 8, when they host Grand Canyon at the Soccer Athletic Complex. Kickoff is at 1 p.m.