PLAINVIEW, Texas – The Mid-America Christian women's soccer team dropped its first road game of the 2021 season as the Evangels fell 2-1 at Wayland Baptist on Tuesday night.
 
SCORING SUMMARY

• First Half
  • WBU – 21:00 – Goal: Aryial Garcia (4), Assist: Mayra Sosa – WBU 1, MACU 0
  • MACU – 43:39 – Goal: Dani Duke (1) – MACU 1, WBU 1
• Second Half
  • WBU – 65:46 – Goal: Bianca Roman (8) – WBU 2, MACU 1

MATCH SUMMARY

• First Half
  • Mid-America Christian managed to get the first attempt on-goal off the foot of Kelsey Henry in the 21^st minute, but the Pioneers took advantage of their first chance just 22 seconds later when Aryial Garcia put across the first goal, assisted by Mayra Sosa, making it 1-0 with WBU with 24 minutes to go in the half.
  • The Evangels were only able to force one shot on-goal by Abigail McCain in the 32^nd minute before MACU found the equalizer with 1:21 to go until the break. On the play, a deep ball was sent on the run of McCain, but on the edge of the goal box, the keeper booted it into her defender retreating on the play, pushing the ball back toward the WBU goal. Crashing in on the play, Dani Duke tapped in her first goal of the season to send it into the half tied at 1-1.
• Second Half
  • It appeared the Evangels dodged a bullet when WBU's Natalie Terry had a shot hit the crossbar, but the Pioneers leading scorer Bianca Roman was able to retrieve the loose ball. Roman was able to get it in-between an Evangels defender and Jennifer Starwalt trying to reach her leg back on a misdirected shot toward the right side of the goal to bring the score to 2-1.
  • Mid-America Christian tried to score an equalizer on shots by Sylvie Willie in the 84^th minute and header shots by Jasmine Morales in the 87^th and Kelsey Henry in the 88^th minutes, but all of the Evangels attempts went wide as the Pioneers held on for the win.

MATCH NOTES

• Both teams finished the match with an equal 11 shots, but the Pioneers took better advantage of the opportunities by placing five shots on-goal to just three for MACU.
• Kelsey Henry led MACU's offensive efforts with three shots, putting just one on-target.
• Jennifer Starwalt made three saves in the contest but conceded two goals in the loss.
• The goal for Dani Duke was the first of her collegiate career and became the 12^th different Evangel to score during the 2021 season.
• The Evangels lost to the Pioneers for the first time since a 2-1 defeat to WBU at the Mike & Helen Dill Soccer Field on Sept. 29, 2018 and suffered their first loss in Plainview since a 4-1 result on Nov. 7, 2015.
• The Pioneers gained three points on the Evangels, who still sit in third in the SAC standings with 12 points while WBU notched its 10^th point with a 3-2-1 mark in SAC play. The Evangels overall moved to 7-5 while the Pioneers are 7-4-1.

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will now face its toughest test of the season as the Evangels will head to Siloam Springs, Ark. on Saturday for a 5 p.m. match against No. 7 John Brown.