University Star

The Texas State women’s soccer team needs a tie to clinch the Southland Conference regular season title along with Southeastern Louisiana’s Sunday loss.

Texas State will take on Texas-San Antonio Friday for the final regular season game where the Bobcats hold an undefeated conference record at home.

The Roadrunners began the season with a 4-0 SLC record. However, UTSA is 0-2-2 in its past four games, including a 3-0 loss to Southeastern Louisiana. Texas State has never beaten UTSA in soccer, which is something the team hopes to change for the first time Friday.

“I know (the Roadrunners) are going to come in thinking they are going to put it to us and ruin our hopes for a championship,” said Coach Kat Conner.

Britney Curry, junior forward, said UTSA looks to end its losing streak Friday in order to keep its conference tournament hopes alive.

“They have had a nasty part of the end of the season,” Curry said. “So they are going to be coming out real scrappy looking just to claw their way back into the tournament. It’s going to be a tough match.”

Texas State is No. 1 in the SLC standings — and has been since conference play began — with a 7-0-1 league record. However, nine of the 10 teams have a chance of making the tournament.   Central Arkansas, which won its first conference game of the season last week to improve its record to 1-6, is one of these teams. The Bears have a chance to make the tournament if they win their final two games.

Only six teams will make the trip to Natchitoches, La. Nov. 5 to Nov. 8. The top two schools will have a first-round bye and the third to sixth-ranked teams will play a wild card round to determine who makes the semi-finals.

However, UTSA is Texas State’s focus when the I-35 Rivalry game takes place Friday.

“I expect a hard-fought battle,” Conner said. “They are a hard-working physical team. We are really going to have to get a strong mentality, work really hard, keep our speed up and come out here and put away those goals.”