Lady Buffs rally past ENMU 3-1

Staff report

CANYON, Texas — Freshman midfielder Baylee Hampton scored her first collegiate goal unassisted in the fourth minute and the lead held up for quite a while for Eastern New Mexico University on Friday night, but rival West Texas A&M scored three times in a span of less than 15 minutes early in the second half and the Lady Buffs posted a 3-1 Lone Star Conference women’s soccer win over the Greyhounds in the regular-season finale for both teams.

WT (8-9-1, 4-5-1 LSC) completed its first season sweep of ENMU (4-13-1, 0-10-0) since 2012 with the win.

After going 16 matches with not allowing more than two goals, the Hounds have now given up eight goals in their last two outings.

Hampton scored from about 30 yards out to put ENMU ahead and the teams were pretty even statistically through the first 45 minutess, but WT posted a 4-1 margin in shots on goal and a 6-0 edge in corner kicks during the second stanza.

Senior midfielder Haley Girard scored two goals for the Lady Buffs, including one in the second minute of the second half off a WT corner kick. Junior midfielder Karyn Forbes put WT ahead about 11 minutes later, converting a free kick just outside the box, and Girard — who had just two goals this season coming in — made it 3-1 when she scored off an assist from sophomore midfielder Alejandra Dockery in the 61st minute.

All six LSC teams will participate in the league tournament, beginning on Thursday at Angelo State. Top seeds Angelo State and Texas A&M-Commerce will have first-round byes, while ENMU will be the No. 6 seed in the tourney and face the third seed, still to be determined, in the quarterfinals.