McMurry University is just a step away from contending for the 2023 American Southwest Conference crown in women's soccer.
The Lady War Hawks beat the University of Texas-Dallas on the road 3-0 Tuesday, Oct. 31 to win their quarterfinal round game and set up a showdown at 5 p.m. Thursday with the University of Mary HardinBaylor in the semifinals in Abilene.
The semifinal game will be in McMurry's backyard of sorts as the semifinal games and conference final will be at Hardin-Simmons University. HSU finished second in the regular season standings behind MHB; however, a conference rule sends the women's tourney to the second-place school in an odd-numbered year if the same school wins both the women's and men's regular season titles.
Tuesday's victory was payback for McMurry, which played UT-Dallas to a 1-1 tie last Saturday also on the road to end the regular season.
McMurry entered the quarterfinal game as the number-five team while the opponent was number four.
The first half between the Lady War Hawks and Comets was a battle of defenses until the 39:14 mark in the first half when junior forward/midfielder
Jaelynn Portillo (Grand Prairie, Texas) scored her third goal of the season off an assist by junior forward
Emily Holland (Mansfield, Texas).
At the 51:22 mark in the second half, Holland scored her 19th goal of the season off an assist from senior defender
McKenna Standifer (Flower Mound, Texas). Holland then scored again, this time on a penalty kick, at the 65:09 mark in the second stanza.
McMurry finished with 14 shots, four in the first half and 10 in the second. Portillo had six shots while Holland added five. Freshman midfielder
Madison Black (Granbury, Texas) also contributed two shots and sophomore defender
Katie Wilson (Liberty Hill, Texas) chipped in one. The Lady War Hawks had five corner kicks.
Senior goalkeeper
Cortlynn Boone (Argyle, Texas) recorded two saves while sophomore goalkeeper
Lauren Marlow (Flower Mound, Texas) had one.
The Lady War Hawks, which enter the semifinal game with a season record of 11-4-4, lost 2-0 to MHB on Oct. 21 at McMurry. The Lady War Hawks are appearing in their sixth straight tourney according to the ASC website.
The tourney title game is 6 p.m. Saturday at HSU
