Box Score CANYON – Taylor Moore scored her second goal of the season, and the Wayland Baptist women's soccer team came close to a second straight win. Instead, the Pioneers settled for a 1-1 tie against West Texas A&M here Tuesday night.
"These girls put in the best game I have seen so far in the short season," said WBU coach Shiloh Posey, whose team was making its fourth outing, counting two scrimmages. "The work ethic by all 11 players – whoever they were on the field – was done with intention, with purpose and with a lot of energy. We came with a mind-set of 'we control our own destiny and we are going to dictate that destiny. We won't let anyone force us to do anything their way.'
"The girls stepped on with a strong mentality of winning our individual battles and playing good, team defense and offense."
Moore, a redshirt junior who scored in Wayland's 3-0 season-opening win over Texas A&M-Texarkana in Mt. Pleasant on Aug. 17, scored seven minutes, 15 seconds into the match. Junior Estefany Gonzalez played the ball between WT centerbacks and Moore picked it up. After a couple of nice dribbles, the transfer from Cisco Junior College struck from 20 yards out. As the Lady Buff goalkeeper came out, the ball got past her into the side netting.
WTAMU tied it in the 77th minute on a shot from 30 yards out that WBU keeper Kaitlyn Brantzeg got her hands on, but the ball skipped through.
The Pioneers had a prime opportunity to retake the lead with 5:00 left when a WT defender played a direct pass to her keeper, who picked up the ball. That resulted in an indirect free kick for Wayland from just inside the box.
Megan Attenborough took the shot that deflected off one of the WT players and bounced back into the field of play.
"Unfortunately we couldn't capitalize," Posey said. "We just couldn't make it pay off."
The contest was considered a scrimmage for WTAMU as NCAA Division II schools are not allowed to begin competition until Sept. 1.
Wayland took six shots, all of which were on-goal. Moore was credited with half of WBU's shots, while Attenborough and freshmen Allison Alvarez-Garcia and Kayla Ortiz took one apiece.
Brantzeg played the entire match in goal and was credited with five saves.
It was only the second time Wayland and WT have met, with the Lady Buffs winning the first matchup in 2014, 4-0.
"There are things, obviously, to work on, but what I saw tonight gives men a lot of encouragement because it proves they can do what we ask them to do at a high level," Posey said. "I saw encouraging things all over the field. Every person stepped in and did everything we asked and did it well."
WBU continues its season-opening six-event road trip on Saturday in Dallas where they take on Paul Quinn College at 1 p.m. Like WT, the Pioneers and PQC have met just one previously, in 2016, with Wayland taking a 4-0 win.
The Lady Tigers, of the NAIA's Red River Athletic Conference, have played three matches thus far, defeating Cedar Valley 2-0 and losing to Southwestern Assemblies of God 3-0. PQC, which went 4-11 last season, also hosted Southwest Adventist on Aug. 26, although no result is available.
Posey remains hopeful for the Pioneers going forward.
"If they continue in this direction, I see some really good things for the future," the coach said. "I was really pleased with what we saw tonight and look forward to doing what we did tonight consistently the rest of the season."
