Sports Notes

Soccer Team in Play Saturday

Six seniors will play their final home game for the Texas A&M International University men's soccer team when TAMIU hosts Wiley College on Saturday at Dustdevil Field. All six (Noé Esquinca, Jeff García, Diego Gentile, Jerrod Idle, Paco Imatzu and Jesús Sánchez) have played key roles in establishing TAMIU has a Red River Athletic Conference powerhouse.

The seniors have led TAMIU to a 27-9 record over the last two years with the Dustdevils shooting for their second straight RRAC tournament title this season.

Saturday's festivities include free Mariachi Express tacos for the first 250 fans and a halftime shoot-out contest for food prizes from Coyote Creek, Wendy's and Mariachi Express. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. Adult admission is $5 and student admission (K-12) is $3. Anyone with a TAMIU ID will be admitted for free.

Cross Country Notes

Juniors Mark Vela and Anetra Matthews will lead TAMIU's cross country teams into this Friday's Red River Athletic Conference Championships at Northwood University in Cedar Hill. Both are ranked in the top-five in the conference and top-10 in the NAIA Region VI rankings.

Vela's season-best 8K was 27:16 at the Texas Lutheran Invitational on Oct. 16 while Matthews registered a season-best 5K outing of 19:55 on Sept. 17 at the Texas A&M Invitational.

Volleyball Notes

With Friday's win over NCAA Division II member Incarnate Word, TAMIU improved to 5-0 this season against NCAA D I and II opponents. Prior to defeating UIW, TAMIU logged two wins over Texas A&M-Kingsville (D II) and one win apiece against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and UT-Pan American (D I)

... TAMIU plays only once this week, a Saturday road match against UT-Pan American. TAMIU swept UTPA on Sept. 18 in Laredo to secure the Dustdevils first win in five tries against the Lady Broncs. UTPA has an 8-13 overall record entering play this week.

Men's Soccer Notes

Texas A&M International University will secure a second place finish in the Red River Athletic Conference regular season standings with one win in two games this weekend.

TAMIU will close-out the regular season with a road game at Huston-Tillotson on Friday and a home game against Wiley College on Saturday. Those two teams have a combined 4-7 conference record entering play this week

... Senior Diego Gentile needs just two goals to reach the 25-goal plateau for his two-year Dustdevil career. Gentile scored 11 goals as a junior transfer from Richland Junior College last season. This season, he ranks second on the squad in goals (12) and total points (30).

Women's Soccer Notes

Texas A&M International University put itself in great position for a Red River Athletic Conference tournament spot with Sunday's 3-1 win over Bacone College.

With the win, TAMIU improved to 2-3 in conference play. The only scenario in which TAMIU does not make the conference tournament would be UT-Permian Basin (1-2 RRAC) beating College of the Southwest (3-1 RRAC) and Northwood (3-0 RRAC) along with a Texas Wesleyan (1-2-1 RRAC) win over Northwood this week.

A College of the Southwest win over UTPB on Tuesday would clinch a first-ever conference tournament berth for the Dustdevils ...

Freshman Amber Rendleman recorded her second goal and first assist of the season in Sunday's crucial win over Bacone. She previously scored in a 4-2win at McMurry on Sept. 11.