The CSUN women’s soccer team dropped the first of two Texas road matches on Friday night as Baylor freshman Natalie Huggins scored the first goal of her collegiate career in the eighth minute of the non-conference game to give the Bears a 1-0 victory.
The Matadors’ defense kept them in the game against the Big-12 Conference team. Baylor was effective, scoring on one of the two shots on goal they recorded. CSUN junior goalkeeper Cynthia Jacobo had a save for the game, pushing her career total to 121.
The Matadors (0-2) put pressure on Baylor (2-0-1) as goalkeeper Courtney Seelhorst had to save two shots in a two-minute span. The first shot was by senior defender Brielle Slepicoff and the second came off junior midfielder Marie Hirsch.
The Matador offense continued to struggle to get the ball in the back of the net, going scoreless for the second straight game to start the season.
As a team, CSUN had nine shots, five of those were on goal. For the second straight game, junior forward Melissa Fernandez led the team with three shots, two being on goal.
It was a physical game. The teams combined for three yellow cards and 18 fouls. Baylor had 14 of those fouls and two yellow cards. The first yellow card was given to Baylor midfielder Lisa Sliwinski in the 38th minute while sophomore midfielder Karlee Summey earned her yellow card in the 73rd minute. Slepicoff had the lone yellow card for the Matadors in the 79th minute.
The next stop for Northridge is at Texas (2-1) on Sunday afternoon.