WICHITA FALLS, Texas (October 29, 2024) – The University of Texas Permian Basin women's soccer team was unable to hand Midwestern State University its first loss of the season on its home field as the Mustangs instead defeated the Falcons by a score of 2-0 on a late Tuesday afternoon.

It was only the second shutout of the season for Midwestern State, which improved to 8-2-5 overall and 4-1-5 in the Lone Star Conference after beginning the day in seventh place in the conference standings.

MSU is also now 5-0-3 overall at home this season with a 2-0-3 record when hosting conference opponents. The last three matches at Stang Park before Tuesday's match against the Falcons had all resulted in a draw for MSU.

The Mustangs now have a plus-11 goal differential at home, outscoring visitors 19-8 this season.

UTPB, meanwhile, saw its record fall to 4-7-3 overall and 2-6-2 in conference play. UTPB has lost its last four away matches and has not scored a road goal in 372 minutes.

With its first shutout win against UTPB since 2019, Midwestern State is now 13-1-1 all-time against UT Permian Basin and has won the last five meetings.

Midwestern had each of the first six shots of the match and got the scoring started on its fifth shot as a free kick by Nyxalee Munoz from about 25 yards out went into the top left corner of the goal in the 11th minute. It was the fourth goal of the season for Munoz.

With the Falcons heading into the direction of a 30 mile per hour wind in the first half, MSU outshot UTPB 15-5 to start the match and added to its lead at the 38-minute mark when Lexi Beck got her fifth assist of the season on a cross right in front of the goal to Jimena Rodriguez, who finished over the keeper for the third goal of her freshman campaign.

After falling behind 2-0, the final three shots of the first half went to the Falcons, who saw attempts by both Natalia Salas and Cassandra Ramirez blocked in the 40th and 44th minutes, respectively.

Those were just half of four blocked shots by the Mustangs in the first half, the others by Salas (18th minute) and then by Sophie Dionissiou (36th minute) just over two minutes before MSU's second goal of the match.

UTPB picked up the pace considerably in the second half and outshot MSU 16-4 over the final 45 minutes, resulting in eight saves by Allison Dellis.

The final shot count would favor UTPB 24-19 while shots on goal were even at nine apiece.

Ramirez led all players with nine shots in the match, just outpacing Munoz who had eight total shots and put five shots on goal for MSU.

Dionissiou and Salas were next with four shots apiece while Hayley Sawyer had three shots.

UTPB goalkeeper Valeria Delgado surpassed her season-high in saves (6), each of which came in the first half.

Next up, the Falcons host St. Edward's University at 11 a.m. on Friday, November 1.