Strand scores twice as Jags down Concordia-Texas for first win

A pair of goals from Clara Strand lifted the UHV women's soccer team to a 2-0 win over Concordia-Texas on Saturday at The Cage.

The win is the first of the year during an unbeaten start for the Jaguars (1-0-2). It also extended UHV's regular season unbeaten streak to 10 matches.

"I think our first half was very good. We showed up and battled; we wanted a good result today," said head coach Adrian Rigby. "I think our first half was key. We just set the tone for that. There was a little bit of a dip in the second half, but they just worked really well out there."

The Jaguars fired off six of their 14 shots in the first 20 minutes, including two in the first six minutes by Estelle Flanagan. She and Strand combined for eight shots in Saturday's win.

"With those two, it's basically a 1A and 1B," Rigby said. "We're fortunate to have two good strikers, and either can start and either can come in and continue the work of the other. We're very fortunate to have those two and it was good to see Chloe Spencer back on the field. She put in a good shift and did a really good job as well."

Twenty minutes after coming off the bench for Flanagan, Strand netted the opening goal of the match in the 42nd minute thanks to a pass from Yasly Escobar, her first assist of the year.

Strand scored an unassisted brace in the 77th minute to seal the win.

It's the second multi-goal game for the Swedish sophomore and ties a career-high for goals scored she set in a 5-0 win over North American University in 2022. They were her second and third of the year, and 13th and 14th of her career.

"It feels really good," Strand said. "You can see it on the team, everyone is really happy. We needed this win today."

Saturday was the first clean sheet of 2023 for the Jaguars' back line of Ana Maria Munoz Rodriguez, Trine Stenderup Jorgensen, Camden Garner, Audilia Vargas, Sofia Skyriotis and goalkeeper Hayli Nichols, who made a big save in the 80^th minute to preserve the shutout.

"I think the defense played really hard in front of her to help get that," Rigby said. "She made a really good save late. The girls played really hard in front of her and she did her job by managing the game really well."

The Jaguars open Red River Athletic Conference play on Thursday when they host Texas College at 1 p.m.