A&M-Commerce soccer looks to respond to first loss

Women's Soccer

A&M-Commerce women's soccer has two home games this weekend, starting tonight with a visit from Harding University at 7:30 p.m. The Lions then take on No. 12 Florida Southern at noon on Sunday.

They go into this weekend's action after a last-gasp 1-0 loss in the second half of overtime against Dallas Baptist University last Tuesday. Head coach Neil Piper said his team had too many miscues, which led to his team's first loss of the season.

"It wasn't unlucky, it shouldn't have happened," he said. "We made some basic mistakes that shouldn't happen at this level, and when you don't play like you should, you can't say you got unlucky. I don't think we deserved to win, but I don't necessarily think we deserved to lose. When you don't score, you can't make silly mistakes, and we made one too many."

Last season, the Lions thumped Harding 6-0 in Searcy, Ark. Despite that result, Piper is wary of the challenge they present.

"Harding has always been a solid team, and we just want a good performance, work on things, and get a good result," he said.

He also said he was ensuring his team was not looking too far ahead, as there is a job to be done before playing NCAA ranked Florida Southern.

"They've had some great results, beat the number two team in the country," Piper said. "They are very athletic, and that's going to be a hard one, but we can't overlook Harding."

The Lions have a big trip away to Texas Woman's University on Wednesday of next week, as it is the beginning of their conference schedule. Piper said he hopes these matches get his team ready for a more crucial part of their schedule.

"We're hoping these two games prepare us for the Texas Woman's game on Wednesday, which is the most important game of the next three," he said. "You always want to play well at home. We have a very tough home conference schedule, so this would be good to prepare for that. Plus, you don't want to get into the hole. It's not easy to win on the road, so you better win your home games."

The Texas Woman's match sparks a five-game road trip for the Lions, which includes two more conference games against West Texas A&M and Eastern New Mexico.

Volleyball

Speaking of road trips the volleyball team is looking to bounce back away to Eastern New Mexico on Saturday at 3 p.m. after losing their first conference match against No. 22 West Texas A&M on Thursday.

Senior Naomi Mays will be looking to copy her efforts in the West Texas loss, where she led the team in kills with 12.

The Eastern New Mexico match is the last before a three game home stand for the Lions, which begins on Sept. 23 when they play Angelo State at 7 p.m.