No. 5 Texas knocks off SFA

By Colby White Daily Texan Staff Two days after recording the first multi-goal performance of her career, freshmen Niki Arlitt continued to make her mark on No. 5 Texas by scoring another two goals against Stephen F. Austin in Sunday night's late game. Arlitt put Texas on the scoreboard early in minute 10 when she controlled a loose ball off her chest and put it past the goal keeper. She would add another goal to her stat sheet less then ten minutes later off of a low cross from Kelsey Carpenter. "She's just really clean in front of goal," Texas head coach Chris Petrucelli. "If she gets a chance she's going to put it away." The Longhorns (6-1-1) followed Arlitt's lead and added two more goals to notch a dominant 4-0 victory over the Ladyjacks (3-3-1), Texas' second straight win. Texas retained possession throughout the game and stalled most of the Ladyjacks' attacks in the midfield. SFA could only manage to put up seven shots during the game with only five of them forcing Longhorn goal keeper Dianna Pfenniger to make a save. In SFA, Texas faced a challenge similar to the one Houston provided two nights earlier. Both the Ladyjacks and Houston packed the midfield in an attempt to capitalize on any Texas mistakes. Both came up short, however, as Texas was able stretch out the defense on both nights by pushing their defenders forward to cross balls into the box and help out the attack. "We'd thought they'd sit in a little bit," Petrucelli said. "We talked about getting it into wide spaces so we could get some serves in." Arlitt's two goals pushes her season total to seven despite only playing in five games. The rookie has scored in every game she has played and leads a freshmen class that has paid dividends early and often, scoring 10 of Texas' 22 goals. "They're getting better," Petrucelli said of his freshmen. "You can see those guys starting to grow a little bit. ... I think they'll get better [during conference play]." Petrucelli emptied his bench during the second half in order to give his regular starters some rest heading into next week's Big 12 opener against Texas Tech. "Our goal was to get [junior defender Stephanie] Logterman and [senior defender Kasey] Moore off the field," Petrucelli said. "They've played almost every minute."

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