LORMAN, Miss. - The Alcorn State University women's soccer team dropped an 8-0 decision to New Mexico State in a rainy Monday afternoon at Spinks-Casem Stadium. The Lady Braves are 0-1 to start the season, while the Aggies improve to 4-0-1.

Alcorn took seven shots with three on goal. Redshirt-sophomore Rita Okoro, who played all 90 minutes in the match, put two of her five shots on target. Redshirt-senior Viktoriya Mihaylova followed with a pair of shots, placing one on goal, in a 77-minute outing. Sophomore keeper Giselle Rojas recorded three saves in a complete-game effort.

In addition to Okoro and Rojas, other Lady Braves that logged 90 minutes included senior Priscilla Guardado, junior Yaira Guardado, sophomores Anjelica Dugan and Maya McInnis, and freshman Chantelle Arambulo.

The Lady Braves got a good look at goal early on, but Okoro's header in the second minute hit the top post. Alcorn took another pair of shots in the ninth and tenth minutes by Okoro and Mihaylova, but NMSU keeper Dmitri Fong was able to save both attempts.

"It's the first game of the year," said head coach Junior Noel. "We lacked a lot of composure attacking the ball. We had a couple chances early on and if we had put those away, the run of the game would have been totally different."

NMSU got its offense going as Audriana Chavez opened up the scoring in the 11th minute. The team's leading goal scorer put away a Devin Hart corner kick that fell in front of the Alcorn goal. Chavez then assisted Aileen Galicia six minutes later, and Samantha Afonso placed a shot from the left side to the back right of the net in the 24th minute to make it a 3-0 Aggie lead.

Chavez earned her second goal of the day a minute later as she attempted a cross from the left side of the 18-yard box that found its way to the bottom left of the net. Katie Martinez assisted Alexandria Otero in the 37th minute and NMSU took a 5-0 lead at the break.

The Aggies pushed their lead with three more scores in the second half. Jody Hernandez and Martinez got into the scorer's column with two goals in as many minutes. Mihaylova had another opportunity to put Alcorn on the board in the 62nd minute as she was fouled just outside of the 18-yard box, but her shot missed to the left. Ortero then registered her second of the day in the 82nd minute for the final tally.

For the Aggies, Chavez and Ortero each netted a pair of goals. Hart and Andrea Castaneda both finished with a pair of assists. Goalkeeper Dmitri Fong made three saves in 90 minutes of action.

NMSU, who has wins over UTEP and New Mexico, is now 2-0 against SWAC teams. The Aggies defeated Grambling State 1-0 last Saturday.

"We have a lot of bad habits," added Noel. "People taking unnecessary touches in places that they don't need to and putting us in a bad position. However, I'm satisfied with the effort considering that I'm seeing them play together for the first time in a competitive environment. I think we performed well in that for long periods in the game, we were involved. There wasn't a situation where we were totally dominated. But there were a lot of positives I can take away from today. Once we get some more games under our belt, we're going to make some noise."

The Lady Braves have over a week off as they host East Texas Baptist in a 4 p.m. match Sept. 7.

#FearTheBrave