Squad catches fire down stretch with ‘heart,’ ‘intensity’
Sarah Borg blasts a kick at point-blank range to the opposing goalkeeper. The Lady Comets have hit their stride recently, and they rode a five-game winning streak into weekend matches against East Texas Baptist and LeTourneau University. - Ben Hawkin - Mercury Staff
With five consecutive wins making their overall record 9-3 (7-1 in the ASC), the Lady Comets are closing in on clinching their place in the American Southwestern Conference Championship Tournament.
Last week they cruised past Texas Lutheran and Schreiner University 3-0 and 5-0, respectively, recording their sixth and seventh shutouts of the season.
The Lady Comets dominated possession in both games, and the stats show where Texas Lutheran only had two shots — none were shots on goal — leaving sophomore goalkeeper Brittany Best with hardly any saves to make on the night.
All three goals came during the second half to give the Lady Comets the victory.
However, despite the convincing score line, head coach John Antonisse still felt that the team had some room for improvement regarding their overall performance.
“On Thursday (against Texas Lutheran), I felt like we didn’t quite play with as much intensity and heart (like we did against Schreiner),” head coach John Antonisse said, “but we did what we had to do to win the game.”
Unlike the game against Texas Lutheran where it took the Lady Comets some time to break into their stride, they came out pounding out goals after only eight minutes into the game against Schreiner.
“I felt like we played really well. We played with lot of intensity and heart, so the result was really good,” Antonisse said.
Senior Kate Gougler and freshman Carli Beckett got on the score sheet against Schreiner, but it was senior forward Leah Bowyer who took the spotlight this week, racking up five goals and one assist in two games while also recording her second hat trick of the season.
Standings as of October 13
“From day one of her freshman year, she just gets it done. She’s a phenomenal player,” Antonisse said.
With her 46 career goals, Bowyer is currently third on the school’s all-time scoring list and edging closer to putting her name at the top of the school’s record book of career goals, just five behind Natalie Taylor and 11 behind Kristen Andrews.
There is little doubt that the physical aspects of the game will come into importance when the technicality of the teams is evenly matched, especially in tournaments where every fight for the ball will prove to be crucial. That’s why Antonisse emphasized the need to go into the tackles strong and being more aggressive on the pitch in order to even better their overall performance before heading into the postseason.
The Lady Comets have six games remaining in the season, and four of them will be played at home. The home game against University of Texas at Tyler on Oct. 22 will be the spectacle out of the games left, as Tyler is tied with UTD for second place in the ASC standings.
They will play away at East Texas Baptist and LeTourneau on Oct. 14 and 15, respectively. The next and last four games of the season will be at home on Oct. 20, 22, 25 and 27.
