HOUSTON- The University of Houston soccer team opened up Conference USA play with a double-overtime, 2-2, draw against SMU on Friday evening. The Cougars are now 4-4-1 on the season.

"It was a good game," head coach Chris Pfau said. "We came out, battled, and did some nice things. The biggest struggle with this team is dealing with the pressure when we're up. It's a long season in conference and points are points. Early in the second half we lost our rhythm, and we could have easily gotten down, but found a way to stay in it."

The Cougars got an early lead off their first shot attempt in the 16th minute. Sophmore forward Kayla Walker found senior forward Katelyn Rhodes for her second goal of the season. Houston played great defense for the rest of the first half and held the Mustangs scoreless and to four shots.

Both teams came out of halftime aggressive, but SMU would be quick to tie the game in the 48th minute. The Cougars would answer two minutes later when Martinez scored off a penalty kick after sophomore forward Kelsey Zamora was fouled inside the box. The Mustangs didn't let the Cougars keep the lead for long and would knot the game once more in the 52nd minute.

"We came out in the second half a little tentative," Pfau said. "We have to learn to play. When it was 2-2 we started to get our energy back. We have to learn how to play and whatever happens happens. If we can do that when we have the lead, we will be fine. We haven't had many leads early, so it's good that we learned to cope with it and finish with a tie against a very good SMU team."

The teams would play scoreless soccer for the remainder of the game.

UP NEXT
The Cougars will host Tulsa at 1 p.m., Sunday at Robertson Stadium. GameTracker will be available for all fans free of charge. For a direct link to the match, please click here.

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Follow Houston Soccer on Twitter @UHCougarSoccer and "Like" /HoustonCougarSoccer on Facebook

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