Coronado and Monterey stepped onto Lowrey Field Monday night hoping to gain some ground in the District 2-5A girls soccer race.

Neither got what it was looking for — the three standings points that come with a victory — but the outcome could have been worse for both. The Lady Mustangs and Lady Plainsmen played to a scoreless tie, each picking up a point.

“Of course, it’s not what either team wanted,” Coronado head coach Monte George said. “But we’ll take it over a loss.”

The tie was a little easier to take for Coronado (2-5-4, 1-5-3 in district), which was beaten twice by Monterey a year ago. The Lady Mustangs also are trying to climb their way up from seventh place in the 2-5A standings, so following Saturday’s win against Odessa with a tie against Monterey felt somewhat like another win.

But for fifth-place Monterey (5-3-3, 3-3-3), it felt more like a match that got away. A win would have pulled the Lady Plainsmen even with fourth-place San Angelo, which was idle on Monday, but now they’re two points out of a playoff spot with nine district matches remaining.

“We’re still in control of our own destiny,” said Monterey head coach Paul Vann, whose team is 3-1-2 in its last six matches. “We’ve just got to do a little better in the second half of district than San Angelo does. Hopefully, we can pick up some wins that they don’t.”

The Lady Plainsmen had several chances to win Monday’s match, holding an 8-3 advantage in corner kicks and a 10-3 edge in shots on goal. Most of those scoring chances came during a fairly one-sided second half, but Monterey couldn’t capitalize.

That was partly because of Coronado goalkeeper Anissa Arenas, who thwarted a pair of would-be goals toward the tail end of the match. The freshman tipped a straight-on shot by Cassandra Olivarez just over the crossbar, and she turned a similar trick on a shot by Nicollette Mendez with about 10 minutes left. Arenas jumped to knock the ball off the crossbar and back into play, and then she smothered it to preserve the tie.

“The key to those is you’ve got to time it at the right spot, so it’s like, ‘Oh, I just hope it doesn’t go in at the last minute,’ ” said Arenas, who made six second-half halves. “I had to save those, so I tried my hardest.”

Jessica Gaines started in goal and made four saves for Coronado, while Monterey goalie Jacey Lester stopped all three shots she faced. Lester didn’t have to deal with nearly as much danger as her counterparts, because the Lady Plainsmen spent much of the match on their attacking end.

The Lady Mustangs weathered the storm, though, so they got the same result.

“I’m proud of my team that we took everything they had to throw at us and turned them back the other way,” George said. “Any time you can stand up to that many corner kicks and that many opportunities and not let them in the net, that’s a good team effort.”

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