PORTALES, N.M. – Eastern New Mexico women's soccer opens Lone Star Conference play with a road match against rival West Texas A&M Friday at 6 p.m. on The Pitch.
 
LAST WEEK
 
Following three consecutive shutout victories and a hard-fought 0-0 draw to Southern Nazarene last week, the Hounds are off to their best start in program history.
 
Eastern played an extremely aggressive match against SNU out-shooting the Storm 27-11 but despite the offensive onslaught the Hounds were unable to find the back of the net. ENMU had plenty of scoring chances, earning seven corner kicks and sending eight shots on goal throughout the match. Even though the Hounds offense struggled to produce their defense was able to bail them out after turning in another strong performance. The 2019 Hounds move into a tie for the eighth most single-season shutouts in program history with four.
 
SCOUTING THE BUFFS
 
After winning their season opener, the Buffs have dropped three straight with their latest defeat a 1-0 shutout loss to Oklahoma Baptist last week
 
WT is currently tied for the third worst scoring margin in the Lone Star Conference at -.75 after scoring three goals and allowing six.
 
Head Coach Chad Webb enters his tenth season at the helm of the Lady Buff soccer team after being named the second women's soccer coach in program history. Webb led WT to its eighth LSC regular season championship and its first South Central Regional Championship in nine years following a 15-4-3 overall record in 2018.
 
The Buffs frontline features the reigning LSC Player of the Year and United Soccer Coaches Third Team All-American Hannah Kelley-Lusk. The Junior is tied for the team lead with one goal scored and her 17 shot attempts are the fourth most amongst conference competitors.
 
Defensively WT returns the 2018 LSC Defensive Player of the Year and USC First Team All-South Central selection Cheyenne Orozco. The Rio Rancho, N.M. native has logged 270 minutes in 2019 and has recorded two shots.
 
Freshman goalkeeper Natasha Worm has had a pair of rough outings following her season opening shutout. Worm surrendered five goals on 33 shots faced with a .643 save percentage which is the second lowest in the LSC.
 
Filling in for Worm last week against OBU was junior keeper Daniela Estrada. Estrada tallied 11 saves and allowed a goal in her WT debut.
 
2019 STORY LINES
 
The Hounds are one of six teams in Division II soccer that has yet to surrender a goal and the only team in the Lone Star Conference and South Central Region.
 
Eastern is a part of a new-look LSC that has doubled in size from a year ago, expanding from seven teams to 14 teams with the top seven teams receiving bids to the conference tournament in November.
 
CONFERENCE LEADERS
 
ENMU fields one of the best defenses in the LSC and continues to harass opposing offenses as they hold the best marks in goals against average (.000), save percentage (1.000) and shutouts (4).
 
On the offensive side of the ball, the Hounds average the second most shots per game with 18.25 while their 73 total attempts rank fourth. The three teams that rank ahead of ENMU in the shots column have all played five games.
 
REGIONAL RANKINGS
 
Despite not allowing a goal or suffering a defeat, the Hounds have dropped out of the top ten in the latest United States Soccer Coaches South Central Region rankings but, are still receiving votes.
 
Five LSC teams are listed in the poll with No. 3 DBU topping the list. Angelo State is fourth followed by Texas Woman's in fifth, Texas A&M-Commerce in ninth and Lubbock Christian at tenth to round out the list.
 
GOOD COMPANY
 
Junior defender Hayden Zuniga has been a crucial piece to the 2017 and 2018 squads and has logged 3,441 minutes in her first two seasons. Averaging more than 1,700 minutes a season, the Sahuarita, Ariz. native is on pace to reach the all-time record books in just her third year. Victoria Perez sits at No. 10 on the list and played 4,824 minutes from 2011-14. Zuniga has already logged a team-high 380 minutes in 2019 and is 1,003 shy of catching Perez.
 
FRESH FACES
 
The Hounds have seen many new faces contribute so far this season highlighted by team points leader Desiree Morgas and starting goalkeeper Whitney Dockweiler.
 
Morgas has scored five points on two goals and one assist. The redshirt-sophomore is averaging 4.5 shots per game which is the second-highest in the LSC and her two goals are tied for seventh.
 
Dockweiler leads the conference with a .000 goals against average, 1.000 save percentage and four shutouts. The Bellevue, Neb. native is tied for the fifth-most shutouts in the ENMU all-time single-season record book
 
In total, 13 ENMU newcomers have logged minutes in 2019 including eight true freshman and five transfers.
 
SCHEDULE OUTLOOK
 
With its non-conference schedule completed, Eastern will begin the grind of LSC competition with a road match against rival West Texas A&M. The last time Eastern took on the Lady Buffs in Canyon, the Hounds toppled the Lady Buffs 1-0 in a LSC Tournament Semifinal upset last season.
 
The Greyhounds will return home next week for their first LSC home matches of the regular season as the Hounds will take on conference newcomer UT Tyler on Oct. 3 before tackling Texas A&M-Commerce on Oct. 5.
 
Eastern will wrap up its regular season home slate with a Halloween match against
Oklahoma Christian before playing Midwestern State for Senior Day on Nov. 2. The Hounds will close out the regular season on the road with matches at UT Permian Basin on Nov. 7 and Lubbock Christian on Nov. 9.
 
HOUNDS ON THE ROAD
 
ENMU will pack their bags for the third time this year. In their season opener and first true road contest of 2019 the Hounds where able to walk away with a 1-0 victory over East Central.
 
Last season the Green and Silver posted a 5-5 record away from Greyhound Stadium with impressive upsets over Texas A&M-Commerce and West Texas A&M in the LSC Conference Tournament, earning a bid to the program's first Conference Championship game.