UTSA redshirt sophomore midfielder Bri Carrigan picked herself up and dusted herself off. The bruises and fouls seemed to be accumulating at an equal rate in a physical American Athletic Conference soccer match on Thursday night at Park West Complex.

With each foul, tumble and scrape — and with the frustration rising because of an obvious tactic being employed — a voice from within and the voices from the sidelines implored Carrigan to keep her composure. Soccer is a physical sport, she reminded herself. This is part and parcel to it.

But when Tulsa sophomore forward Addison Castleberry grabbed Carrigan around the neck and pulled her to the ground, though, the slow-to-anger approach went out the window. Carrigan pushed back. So did the Roadrunners.

“I get hit a lot,” Carrigan said. “When I get hit, I’m very calm about it. But, obviously, this game, it got a little bit to me. You’ve just got to keep calm and play the game. When they do one (foul) after another, you’ve just got to prepare yourself for it, and take the foul, and then we get a great position to get it in the goal.”

UTSA did as much, converting on a late penalty kick to rally from a halftime deficit to earn a 1-1 draw. The Roadrunners (6-3-5 overall, 2-2-2 in conference) are unbeaten in their last three outings and tied for sixth place in the AAC. Two weeks ago, they were in last place in the 11-team conference.

And they can thank a spirited second-half performance for attaining a result that could be paramount when it comes to which teams advance to the conference postseason tournament in a few weeks.

In a contest that featured 30 fouls, eight yellow cards, one red card, and saw Tulsa play the final 23 minutes down a player because of a red-card ejection, UTSA capitalized on the situation.

Two minutes after Castleberry was sent off, the Roadrunners evened the score when redshirt sophomore midfielder Leah Varela converted on a penalty kick with 20 minutes left. The PK occurred when Carrigan was tripped up inside the penalty area by Tulsa senior midfielder Kyrsten Kizer. It was Varela’s second career goal, both on PKs, and made more important considering what was on the line and the fact she had to wait several minutes for a VAR (video assistant referee) review before taking the penalty.

“I’m not going to lie, I did have a bit of nerves in me, and it’s kind of on the line, and I have to step up and put it in,” said Varela, who also made a PK in a 3-1 decision vs. Incarnate Word on Sept. 10. “I’ve trained it so much in our practice every week, so I knew I had confidence to step up and go either way (with my shot).”

Tulsa (6-6-3, 1-3-2), which is winless in four games (three losses and a draw), led 1-0 at halftime as Brooklyn Bumgardner headed in Kyrsten Kizer’s corner kick with 3 1/2 minutes left in the first half.

“We just needed to reset,” UTSA coach Derek Pittman said. “I didn’t go in there super angry. I was a bit frustrated because I do think we were playing a little bit timidly, and a little bit second-guessing ourselves. It was about coming back out and showing our character, our intensity, and the quality that we have. I thought we did a really good job of that in the second half, and it ultimately paid off.”

Pittman shortened his rotation over the final 45 minutes, relying heavily on his starters and reserve players Isabel Peters, Caroline Pelkofski, Olivia Christodoulides and Olivia D’Ambrosia. Eight of 11 starters played at least 80 minutes.

“We’ve been on this no-losing streak, we have that energy and that confidence that we’re going to go out and be that gritty team,” Carrigan said.

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