COLLEGE STATION — UTSA rallied from a 1-0 halftime deficit witha goal in the second half, but Lexi Kopf's strike in the 88th minutegave No. 17 UC Irvine a 2-1 victory on Fridayafternoon at Aggie Soccer Stadium. It was the first match of this weekend's season-opening Aggieland Invitational.
The Anteaters struck first in ninth minute when JordanBruce fed Natalie Ledezma for a quick 1-0 lead. Junior Lindsay South andsophomore Maria Jose Rojas had chances before halftime, but UC Irvine went tothe locker room with the lead.
The Roadrunners turned up the pressure in the second halfand broke through in the 53rd minute when Liv Nyhegn's unassistedgoal tied the score. A foul set up Nyhegn with a free kick and the Denmark native beat goalie Jennifer Randazzo for the equalizer.
However, UTSA could not take the lead and saw theAnteaters earn the victory when Kopf found the back of the net for the winner. Dana Sanderlin started the play with a shot that junior keeper Dacia Webb stopped with a dive, but the ball rolled away from Webb and Kopf finished the exchange to give UC Irvine the 2-1 trimuph.
The Roadrunners will look to bounce back against FresnoState (0-1) at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday.
