GREENVILLE – After two schedule changes and a change of location, the Texas A&M University-Commerce soccer team finally faced off against the McNeese Cowgirls on Saturday morning at the Ford Memorial Stadium in Greenville and came away with the 2-1 win in the regular season finale for both teams.
 
Picked to finish eighth in the preseason in its first Southland Conference season, the Lions went 7-4-1 to finish third and will be the No. 3 seed in next week's conference tournament hosted by Northwestern State, next Wednesday through Sunday. The Lions finish the regular season, its first in Division I, with a record of 7-8-2 overall and will find out their opponent in the SLC tournament on Saturday night.
 
"First, I want to thank Greenville High School for allowing us to play at their stadium today," said coach Ashley Gordon. "Today was not easy. We played a good team and playing on turf presented challenges for both teams."

"This year has been a great learning experience for our program and winning seven conference games is quite an achievement. The win today will give us confidence as we head to the Southland Conference Tournament."
 
The Cowgirls finish the regular season with a record of 5-8-4 overall and finish seventh with a conference record of 3-5-4, to clinch a spot in next week's conference tournament.
 
Playing on turf with rainy conditions to start the match, the Lions got a goal in the 29^th minute from Valerie Flores (Irving - MacArthur), assisted by Ashley Campuzano (Dallas – Atlas Prep). Campuzano took the initial shot, that was saved, and Flores kicked in the rebound.
 
Campuzano added the second goal for the Lions in the 34^th minute, it was a penalty kick caused by a handball in the box. McNeese scored its lone goal of the day in 88^th minute from Salma Elhaimer, assisted by Matilde Tesgaard.
 
For the Lions, who outshot the Cowgirls, 19-7, Campuzano had six shots and Flores had four shots. Briana O'Dell had seven saves for McNeese. Jen Peters (Allen) had a clean first half, while Gillian McKenzie (Mesquite Horn) made two saves in the second half.
 
There is one match still left to play in the conference this season, which affects the seeding of the conference tournament. The full bracket of next week's tournament will be released at the completion of the match between Houston Christian and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday night.