Women's soccer hosting Huston-Tillotson in non-conference finale

Thursday will be a little different for the Texas A&M University-Victoria women's soccer team in its non-conference finale.

The Jaguars (2-1-2) put their four-match unbeaten streak on the line Huston-Tillotson at 1 p.m. at The Cage. It's the first time A&M-Victoria and Huston-Tillotson (3-3-1) haven't been in the same conference since 2014.

The Rams left the Red River Athletic Conference for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Athletic Conference (HBCUAC) at the end of the 2024-25 school year. Last year, the Jaguars won, 2-0, in the final conference meeting between the two schools.

"It's very weird to say they're out of our conference," head coach Kimberly Uetrecht joked. "They always play hard and they always fight. That's who their identity has been as a team. So, we'll definitely have a fight on our hands and it'll be a good matchup for us."

A&M-Victoria has been strong during its unbeaten run and defense has led the way.

The Jaguars have conceded just twice in the last four matches and limiting opponents to a .086 shot percentage. Senior defender Rosa Reyes was named Red River Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week after anchoring A&M-Victoria's back line which limited opponents to just three shots on goal out of 11 attempts last week.

She joins junior goalkeeper Jamie Noriega as the two Jaguars who have earned the weekly honor this season.

"We have definitely started strong and want to continue to build," Uetrecht said. "Staying tight defensively and having good defensive shape are really important for us. Defense has definitely been leading the way, which we like to see with the couple of Defensive Player of the Week awards. But also, we want to generate some more offense. So, we've been working really hard to keep the ball, build into the attack and do some of those things as we look ahead."

Last week also saw the Jaguars' offense ramp up, outshooting opponents 29-11 with 17 shots on goal.

Ayloni Garcia, who leads the team in goals (3) and shots (16), netted a pair of goals in a 5-0 win over Texas Wesleyan on Thursday. She was one of five Jaguars to find the net last week with Arantza Alva, Kaitlyn McCarty, Jessica Salkeld and Vanessa Bevalian netting their first goals of the year.

Bevalian provided an 85^th-minute equalizer in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Concordia University Texas to keep the Jaguars' unbeaten run going.

"It's awesome to see that people are hungry for goals," Uetrecht said. "That's what we want. We always want to be hungry for goals and to see that ball go in the back of the net. I think we can continue to grow and get better at it, and hopefully see more of those goals as we keep going into the year."

The Jaguars lead the all-time series with Huston-Tillotson 11-2-1 and won the last home matchup, 8-1, in 2023.