Texas Tech Battles TCU to Scoreless Road Draw; Extends Unbeaten Streak in Big 12 Play to 18
FORT WORTH – Opening Big 12 play on the road, Texas Tech Soccer earned a key point against the TCU Horned Frogs Thursday night at Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium.
Riding a 17-match unbeaten streak in conference games, Texas Tech (5-2-1, 0-0-1) found a way to extend it to 18 on Thursday night, holding its opposition to just limited dangerous chances.
The Red Raiders themselves had multiple chances to score, maybe none more dangerous than an 85th minute header from Taylor Zdrojewski off a corner kick. Zdrojewski, skied in the air and connected on a strong header that whizzed past the post and out of harms way.
Tech’s best chance to dent the score sheet in the first half came early in the 14th minute, when a streaking Peyton Parsons ripped a shot that was punched by TCU (4-2-1, 0-0-1 Big 12) goalkeeper Megan Plaschko.
The rebound found Ashleigh Williams, but the forwards shot was once again punched wide by Plaschko.
In goal, UCLA transfer Faith Nguyen was steady once again, as she needed to make just one save in her third clean sheet of the season.
Nguyen’s lone save of the night came in seventh minute on a low shot from TCUs Bella Dioro.
In the end, both sides managed just nine total shots. Four of Tech’s nine shots went on goal, as compared to just one for the home Horned Frogs.
HEAD COACH TOM STONE:
“TCU deserves the credit for how good they were on the ball tonight. They were very composed and were great at getting it back when they turned it over. And that caused us some duress. We were willing to accept the fact that they would have possession in their end, but it was their meaningful possession we were worried about. They got some of that unfortunately, which caused us to really dig in and have to play some great defense. The part on the other side was to catch them with a midfield turnover or something we could get at their backline with Z, Ashleigh, Bug [Giametta], Storie or Blackburn on the wing. Sadly, for us the best chance of maybe the whole game, their keeper made the save of the night. The rebound, Ashleigh was on it, she goes to smash near it post and their keeper did a fantastic job of getting on it. We didn’t have those ‘uh-oh’ moments in front of our goal despite the number of chances TCU had. We were very dangerous on set pieces, and I thought, Z had one late and Bug’s one-two with Skylar in the box looked like it had a chance and one of their players wisely deflected it out of bounds for a corner. We had our chances, and the shots were nine-to-nine. So, it looks better on the stat sheet, but we’re not happy with how we moved the ball and kept the ball. We’re not happy with how we didn’t give them a dose of having to chase. They were better than us at that tonight. But it’s a road point, in Fort Worth. It’s the second time in three years we’ve come away 0-0. I don’t know what that point will mean for us. I know it’s not a zero and neither of us came away with three. So we’ll take it and move on. It gave us some things to think about before we play Utah next week.”
UP NEXT:
With the road point secured at TCU, the Red Raiders will return home for the Big 12 home opener against Utah next Thursday (Aug. 19) night. First touch from the John Walker Soccer Complex is set for 7 p.m.
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Release Provided By Andrew Stern Texas Tech Athletics