LAS CRUCES, N.M. – The New Mexico State women's soccer team defeated Grand Canyon, 2-1, in a thrilling, double-overtime match at the Soccer Athletic Complex on Sunday afternoon. The Aggies close out the weekend with an overall record of 7-6-2 and 1-0-1 in Western Athletic Conference play.
It was a battle of the offenses despite New Mexico State being outshot by Grand Canyon (3-10-1, 0-2-0 WAC), 14-3. At 12:50, midfielder
Aileen Galicia made a cross to
Devin Hart and scored the first goal of the match for NM State, taking an early 1-0 lead. In the 22nd minute of action, GCU's McKenzie Cook set the equalizer when she maneuvered the ball around Aggie goalkeeper
Dmitri Fong.
"It's resiliency," head coach
Freddy Delgado said. "I don't know how else to describe it. They just keep plugging away and keep playing hard. I think that's something they have worked on over the last two years and it's starting to pay off. This is an awesome group of women."
Both teams came out in the second half of the match looking strong defensively. Hart attempted a shot on goal in the 50th minute for NM State, but hit the post. GCU's Amanda Lopez made a rebuttal shortly after, but her shot was high. With the Aggies taking six shots on goal to the Lopes' seven, the 1-1 tie at the end of regulation led to another overtime battle.
Cook shot a corner kick at 96:02 for GCU in the first overtime segment, but wasn't able to capitalize. Seconds later, New Mexico State's Hart tried to find the back of the net, but her shot went wide. At the start of the second overtime segment, Cook attempted a shot on goal, but NM States' Fong made a great save. In the 101st minute of play, Galicia made another great cross to Hart and scored the golden goal, lifting the Aggies past GCU, 2-1.
"Our fans and our bench were big supporters," said Delgado. "A lot of these players played 110 minutes on Friday's game. We were struggling, I'm not going to lie about that. We were tired, some players were injured and our bench and fans did a great job in energizing us. I'm sure the screaming and yelling helped on that last goal."
New Mexico State heads on the road for more WAC action as they prepare to take on Utah Valley on Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m. (MT). The squad remains on the road for a battle against Seattle U at 1 p.m. (MT) on Oct. 14.
"Playing in front of our home crowd was a huge advantage against two good opponents," Delgado said. "We knew we needed to get results this weekend. Getting a tie and a win puts us in a good position moving forward into the rest of conference play. We understand we still have a long ways to go, but we're on an upswing. We're very happy with this weekend."
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