Texas Tech Women's Soccer Keeps Pitching Shutouts

The Texas Tech women's soccer team, with starting goalie Victoria Esson and her back-ups, has now gone seven straight games without allowing a goal (full disclosure: I'm on the faculty at Texas Tech). Regulation time for soccer is 90 minutes, but twice 20 minutes of overtime have been tacked on, bringing the total number of shutout minutes to 670. Based on the Red Raiders' game-by-game log, here's how the streak has unfolded.

Date	Opponent	Score	Esson (min.)	Substitute (min.)
Sept 11	Toledo	3-0	45	Braziel 45
Sept 16	Ariz. St.*	5-0	90	---
Sept 18	Arizona*	0-0	110	---
Sept 23	Missouri	1-0	90	---
Sept 25	N. Arizona	5-0	58	Kaufman 32
Sept 30	@Baylor	0-0	110	---
Oct 2	@Oklahoma	2-0	90	---

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*Arizona tournament at Tucson.


According to the NCAA Division I women's soccer record book, the record for consecutive scoreless minutes by a goalie is 1,669:25 -- that's sixteen-hundred and change -- by Anne Sherow of North Carolina, spanning segments of the 1987 and 1988 seasons. That same record book lists 22 stretches of 700 or more minutes by individual goalies.

Esson has not allowed a score in the last 593 minutes she has played. If, hypothetically, she continued to shut out opponents and brought her personal total of consecutive scoreless minutes above 700, I'm not sure if she would make the list in the NCAA record book, because she was not the netminder for all of her team's minutes during that time. Still, I think you can see the magnitude of what Esson and her Red Raider teammates (don't forget those defense players!) are in the process of accomplishing.