NMSU suffers 1-0 loss to Lamar in WAC Tournament

ABILENE, Texas - A 32-shot assault on Lamar's defense unfortunately yielded no goals for the NM State women's soccer team and the Cardinals' strike in the 47th minute was the difference in the Aggies' 1-0 setback in the opening round of the WAC Women's Soccer Tournament Wednesday afternoon at Elmer Gray Stadium.

Making its second-straight WAC Tournament appearance, NM State outshot Lamar by a 32-8 margin but the Cardinals capitalized on one of their few scoring chances early in the second half to advance to the semifinal round of the league's postseason tournament.

SCORING SUMMARY
47' | The fourth NM State foul of the match set up the free kick which allowed Lamar to move on to the semifinal round of the WAC Tournament. Sarah Zimmer's free kick sailed inside the Aggies' box and after bouncing around for a moment the ball appeared to be headed away from all players on the pitch. Laura Linares, however, made a run toward the loose ball and toed it over to Evan Karen who blasted a hard shot into the Aggies' net to make matters 1-0.

KEY PERFORMERS/STATISTICS OF NOTE
• Leading NM State's offensive onslaught was Loma McNeese who racked up a match-best six shots - two fewer than Lamar mustered as a team through the 90-minute affair. Two of McNeese's tries were placed on target.
• Xitlaly Hernandez, who earned a spot on the All-WAC Second Team Tuesday afternoon, also came up with six shots with four of them on goal.
• Another four of the Aggies' shots came off the foot of All-WAC Second Team selection Hannah Leitner. The speedy forward had an excellent scoring chance in the closing seconds, but was denied by Lamar goalkeeper Nicole Panis who came out of the net and made an excellent save on Leitner's high try.
• Suffering the hard-luck loss between the pipes for the Aggies was Makenna Gottschalk. NM State's goalkeeper posted a pair of saves in her 90 minutes of action.
• Lamar goalkeeper Nicole Panis finished with a total of eight saves and produced her fourth-straight clean sheet with Wednesday's win. The Cardinals head to the semifinal round of the WAC Tournament on a four-match unbeaten streak.
• In addition to the 32-8 advantage in shots the Aggies held, NM State also owned a 12-1 edge in corner kicks but couldn't get anything past Panis.

• NM State finished the season with the most WAC victories in a regular season in program history (five) as well as nine total victories - the second-highest single-season total in the history of the program. 
  
  QUOTABLE | HEAD COACH ROB BAARTS
  "We came to Abilene with one goal and that was to win the conference tournament! When you dominate that much and fall short, it hurts like no other. I am incredibly proud of this team and the overall direction of our program"

COMING UP NEXT
• NM State wraps up its 2021 campaign with a 9-11 record and looks ahead to the 2022 season. A total of 11 seniors - Cindy Alvarez, Lece Aviles, Alexa Barrera, Tia Gladem, Corey Kizer, Katie Martinez, Mia Montano, Shea O'Connor, Grace Olson, Annalise Pacheco and Emma Smith - played in their final match for NM State.