SAN ANTONIO — Freshman Jordyn Lacy scored a pair of goals to help UTSA open Conference USA play with a 3-2 victory against visiting Middle Tennessee on Saturday night at Park West Athletics Complex.
Lacy's fourth and fifth goals of the fall helped the Roadrunners (5-5, 1-0 C-USA) erase an early deficit and then hold off the Blue Raiders (3-5-1, 1-1 C-USA). Senior Brianna Livecchi had the other goal for UTSA and goalie Michelle Cole recorded three saves, including one in the final minute, in the winning effort.
The Roadrunners out-shot Middle Tennessee 17-7, including an 11-3 disparity in the opening half.
Salera Jordan scored the first of her two goals in the fifth minute to give the Blue Raiders an early 1-0 advantage.
However, UTSA would net the next three goals to build a 3-1 lead early in the second half.
Lacy got the comeback started with her first goal of the night, which came in the 15th minute when she headed in a corner kick off the foot of freshman Marianne Hernandez. The helper was Hernadez's team-leading fourth of the campaign.
Despite the 11-3 edge in shots, the Roadrunners could not break through again in the half and the teams went to intermission locked at one.
But UTSA took control early in the second half with a pair of goals in the first eight minutes to build its lead.
Livecchi gave the home squad its first advantage when she knifed through the defense and drilled a shot past the diving Middle Tennessee keeper in the 49th minute. Just four minutes later, sophomore Channing Machen and junior Kaja Skare teamed to set up Lacy for her second goal of the night, another header, for the 3-1 cushion.
The Blue Raiders turned up the offensive pressure and forced three consecutive corner kicks in less than a minute. On the third try, Jordan headed in Abbie Brown's corner kick to slice the UTSA lead down to 3-2 with 33 minutes to play.
That would be as close as the visitors would get, however, as Cole made big saves in the 79th and 90th minutes to preserve the one-score advantage and hand UTSA its first-ever victory in a C-USA opener, while the squad improved to 5-3-3 all-time in league lid-lifters.
The Roadrunners will continue C-USA action at 6 p.m. (CT) on Friday, Sept. 30, when they travel to Norfolk, Va., for a matchup at Old Dominion (3-6, 1-1 C-USA).
