Williams’ 30th Career Goal, White’s heroics, push Tech to 1-0 win over OSU on Senior Day

LUBBOCK, Texas – On the backs of Ashleigh Williams’ 12th goal of the season, the No. 6 ranked Texas Tech women’s soccer program closed out its first-ever perfect home season on Sunday afternoon, downing the Oklahoma State Cowgirls 1-0 on Senior Day.

The 32nd minute strike came at the perfect time for Texas Tech (13-0-4, 7-0-2 Big 12), as Madison White and the rest of the Red Raider backline helped close out the NCAA leading 10th clean sheet of the season.

On the afternoon, White made another four saves to eclipse 240 saves for her career. The Rockwall native lowered her goals-against-average to a paltry 0.47 and raised her save percentage to 0.857. With her 10th shutout, White became the first goalie since Marissa Zucchetto in 2018 to record double figure shutouts.

None of her four saves were bigger than a two-save sequence in the first half when she stonewalled a pair of chances from Xcaret Pineda. The first stop for White was a sprawling save to her right, while the second one was yet another punch save on a high corner kick.

White continues to shine at home, as she has recorded six straight home shutouts and did not allow a goal at home during Big 12 play. The goalkeeper is the only netminder in the country to have at least 10 shutouts without a loss.

The goal for Williams was the 30th of the junior’s storied career, as she became just the fifth Red Raider in program history to record 30 career goals. Williams moved into a fourth-place tie with Kristi Patterson on the all-time goal mark with the game winner, the 13th of her career.

With the win on Sunday, Tech also moves to within one win or a BYU draw/loss from clinching the programs’ first ever regular season Big 12 title and closed out the first perfect home season in program history.

Tech has just one match remaining at Iowa State, while BYU closes with a road contest Monday at OU and a home game next Monday versus UCF.

HC TOM STONE:
On the Red Raiders closing out the perfect home season:
“I think the special part is that it was a senior year for these guys that they will remember. To be unblemished at home is a tremendous accomplishment. Our fans, and our crowds have grown from week to week. You know Red Raider fans; they love big 12 games. So, they start showing up and they’re getting into it. The girls are playing well and the atmosphere has been awesome. It just kind of builds on itself, all the way to today. Because of that, there was a lot of pressure on us. But we kind of dealt with that last week on Thursday. I don’t think we responded as well as we wanted to [Thursday’s against UCF]. I felt like we were free today, we were loose. We were like, ‘we’ve just got to do what we do and hope that that’s enough’ and fortunately it was. For the seniors to have that here is amazing. And to be unblemished on the season so far is amazing for them. We hope to close it out for them next week, but that’s not easy, right? Nobody wants to go that far away for the last game of the season. So we’ve still got our work cut out for us. But for now, we’re definitely celebrating those seniors and we’re super proud of them.”

On what the seniors mean to the team…
“Well, you know, some of these guys went through COVID with us, like Hannah. Those were some dark days. It was hard to be a team, hard to be a coach, and hard to be an athlete on campus during those times. It really impacted some players negatively for the rest of their careers. It left a bad taste in their mouth and some like Hannah wonderfully pushed through that. She became a leader and was a co-leader with Charlotte last year. She is our singular captain this year. Elise Anderson, her two best friends, it was the three of them. We called her, Katie Odum and Briley Weatherford ‘The Three Musketeers’ and she’s the only one left due to injury. Every one of them has a story, kids like Liv [Draguicevich] and kids like Alex [Kerr] that came to us. Who could have thought that Alex and Ashley were going to have the season they’ve had. We’ve never had two ten goal scorers ever, so because of that they unexpectedly have gobbled up 90% of the minutes. So, these kids had a choice to become a bad apple, you know Kaitlyn Giametta isn’t playing as much, Liv has not played as much, Taylor Zdrojewski coming off an injury. These kids could have been a problem and said why are these kids getting all the minutes. The reality is they’ve been leaders, they’ve been positive, and they are part of the culture of our team. When you have that from people that are seniors, then that sets the example for all the younger players. We wouldn’t change the thing in terms of these kids all coming in here. We’re fortunate that the seniors have acted in the way they have, you know, Penny Mulenga has been a mainstay for us and has not been getting the minutes that she’s used to getting, part of that is because Jillian Martinez has played so great and Molly’s evolved and Chloe’s played great. It’s not that Penny’s not a wonderful player, but the pressure on Penny was okay, how are you going to handle that? What’s your response? What kind of leader you’re going to be? And she’s just been great. She’s been classy, and she may be upset later away from the team, but she doesn’t bring it in this building. That’s the kind of character that I would say that sums up the team. The seniors, there’s a ton of character there. These kids were raised right and they are “team first” kids. Even though someone might be frustrated, they don’t let it bring them down or bring the team unit down. Look where the team is, and they’re excited for the team to be there. If we win, it’ll be because of all of them and won’t be because of just who has the stats, they’re all a part of it.”

Q: Hannah Anderson on being part of a historic Texas Tech soccer team and season.
“Honestly, we’ve just been playing one game at a time. And we’re not done yet but looking at our home stretch and knowing that we did go undefeated here is awesome. Especially as a senior, knowing that that was the last time playing here in the regular season. We’re really taking it all in, but at the same time, we have more work to do to try and play as long as possible.”

UP NEXT:
Following a week off, the Red Raiders will close the 2023 regular season in Ames at Iowa State. First kick from ISU is set for 7 p.m.

–TECH–

Release provided by Andrew Stern Texas Tech Athletics