Mean Green Win Seventh Straight

Sunday, October 7

Denton, TX

1:00 P.M.

University of North Texas

9-1-1,4-0

UAB

6-5-1,3-2

Team	1	2	Final F
UAB	0	0	0
North Texas	0	2	2

10/7/2018 4:57:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

DENTON — The North Texas soccer team won its seventh match in a row with another shut out.

In the second-half, the Mean Green (9-1-1, 4-0) scored two goals within two minutes to break a 0-0 stalemate with UAB (6-5-1, 3-2) and continued their signature smash-mouth defense to win 2-0 Sunday afternoon at the Mean Green Soccer Complex.

The victory came two days following their exhausting short-handed 1-0 win over the defending Conference USA regular season champion Rice Owls and it came without their leading goal scorer Taylor Torres.

"A great weekend for our team," said head coach John Hedlund. "We battled two of the better teams in our conference and came away with shutout victories. Today we needed our bench to step up, especially playing a man down on Friday and UAB being off on Friday. I knew UAB would be well rested for us and ready to play so it was essential that our depth showed up and gave us the spark we needed to win the game."

The depth did more than show up for North Texas as the two goals Sunday were assisted by substitute Madeline Guderian, her first assists of her career, and the second goal was scored by another substitute, Ariel Daiz.

The first goal was scored by starter Natalie Newell, but it was the junior's first goal of the season.

"I'm very happy for Natalie and Ariel today for coming up with two big goals for us and once again our defense led by Kelsey (Brann) and Dominique (James) really shut down a very talented UAB team from scoring," Hedlund said.

Sunday was a match that featured Conference USA's two top goalies in the Blazers' Kelsey Daugherty and North Texas' Kelsey Brann, and both were tested early.

UAB attacked very early in the match and had three solid goal-scoring opportunities go just wide.

The Blazers' Jamiera Lunsford put constant pressure on the UNT defense with her speed and ball skills. However, in the 19th minute she was shaken up after being hit by the physical-playing Mean Green defense.

Lunsford would later return in the second-half but during her absence North Texas pounced and regained control. The Blazers only managed one shot following Lunsford's exit.

The Mean Green's best scoring opportunity in the first half came on a penalty kick in the 35th minute.

On a low through ball into the box, Daugherty was called for a penalty for taking out the North Texas offensive player inside the box.

Daugherty though overcame her mistake by saving the penalty kick and securing the 0-0 draw.

The save ended a momentous push the Mean Green had made during that time. From the 29th minute until the penalty kick, UNT had four goal scoring opportunities that they just couldn't finish.

But as they typically do, North Texas came out in the second-half and finished those opportunities.

In the 59th minute, on a cross from roughly 30 yards out, Guderian placed the ball perfectly to the back post where Newell could volley the pass into the back of the net and end the scoring drought to give the Mean Green a 1-0 lead.

And as they've done multiple times this year, North Texas quickly found the back of the net again when sophomore Ariel Diaz scored off of a corner kick from Guderian two minutes later.

It was both Newell and Diaz's first goals of the year, as well as Guderian's first assists of the season.

For North Texas, who entered Sunday with a top five scoring defense in the nation, two-goal leads are almost for sure victories. The Mean Green, who have only given up three goals all season, have yet to give up multiple goals in a single match. After Diaz's goal, UNT's defense continued its physical play, checking UAB's offensive players and not allowing any serious goal scoring opportunities.

This weekend's pair of matches were against two of the top teams in the conference and easily the team's toughest weekend test yet, especially considering UAB's only match this week was against the Mean Green.

"I'm really proud of our team this weekend," Hedlund said. "They played like warriors."

North Texas takes its seven-match winning streak to Western Kentucky on Friday and then to Marshall on Sunday. The program-record for most consecutive wins is nine, which has been done twice but last accomplished by the 2006 team. A pair of wins next weekend would tie the record.

Friday at WKU, UNT will also look to tie the program-record for most consecutive shutout wins with six, which has also been done twice but last accomplished by the 2014 team.

QUICK SHOTS

North Texas has now beaten UAB four times in a row
With another shutout performance, Kelsey Brann improves her save percentage to .921. She entered Friday with the eighth-best save percentage in the nation at .906.
Kelsey Brann's goals-against average dropped to .280. She entered Friday with the ninth-best in the nation at .344
North Texas hasn't given up a goal in the last 518 minutes and nine seconds of game action
With 90 minutes played on Sunday, senior Carissa Sanders moved into 10th all-time on the program's all-time minutes played list with 6,101 career minutes played. She bumped 2011 graduate Shannon Gorrie out of the top 10.