Arizona soccer defeats Texas Tech 1-0 for first road win of Becca Moros era

On an unseasonably cold night in Lubbock, Texas, Arizona Wildcats soccer came out as the aggressors against the home Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Arizona chipped and clawed its way through a scoreless first two-thirds of the match before the game plan paid dividends. In the 69th minute, Megan Chelf delivered a header into the net, her first career goal, off a perfectly-placed center pass by Maddy Koleno.

Arizona goal keeper Hope Hisey held off a late assault by the Red Raiders, and Arizona departed Lubbock with a 1-0 victory, the program’s first road win under second-year coach Becca Moros.

With the win, Arizona moves to 2-0 on the season, having beaten Iowa State in its home opener last Thursday.

Chelf, a junior forward from Newport Beach, nearly put Arizona on the scoreboard much earlier as her 5th minute shot hit off the top crossbar.

Moments later, Chelf again found herself in scoring position, but Texas Tech’s goal keeper made an athletic play at the ball to keep Chelf from a wide open shot at the net.

In the 13th minute, Chelf picked up a yellow card, one of 10 fouls on the Wildcats.

Arizona’s offense mostly came to a halt by the middle of the first half, with Texas Tech dominating possession. The Wildcats defense, however, was able to keep the Red Raiders from getting any clear looks at goal.

At halftime, Texas Tech outshot Arizona 7-4 and had a 3-2 advantage on corner kicks.

The two squads traded empty possessions to start the second half until Arizona found itself in the Texas Tech box in the 69th minute. That’s when Koleno saved a deflected ball heading for a corner and kicked it toward the center of the field, where Chelf was in position to head the ball into the net.

Texas Tech increased its offensive attack after the goal and put itself in prime position a couple times to score the equalizer. In the 76th minute, Hisey managed to save a point-blank shot attempt from the Red Raiders, one of her five saves on the day.

That was the closest the Red Raiders would come to tying the score.

The victory gives Arizona a resume-builder, as Texas Tech went 9-1-1 at home last year and usually finishes near the top of the Big 12.

Arizona will look to extend its perfect start to the season when it travels to Nebraska Thursday. Nebraska is 1-1, having lost to San Diego State in its opener before beating Oklahoma Sunday.

The match starts at 5:00 p.m. MST and will be streamed on Big Ten Plus.