CANYON, Texas - Midwestern State's Brandy O'Neal scored a pair of goals to lead the Mustangs to their first win in nine tries at West Texas A&M Friday afternoon at The Pitch.

"This team really is unfazed by a lot," MSU coach Jeff Trimble said. "They are a very mentally tough squad."

The Mustangs would need a ton of mental toughness to overcome a determined West Texas A&M effort as the Lady Buffs came out strong after O'Neal gave MSU a 1-0 lead at intermission when she converted a breakaway pass from senior defender Melissa Brown.

"We expected them to come after us in the second half, but they really came strong," Trimble said.

West Texas A&M knotted the match at 1-1 in the 51st minute after Elisabeth Markussen notched her 14th goal of the season.

But the Mustangs fought back to take a 2-1 advantage when O'Neal followed a Lauren Smith blast off of the crossbar in the 73rd minute.

Five minutes later, the Mustangs appeared to seal the match when freshman Kendra Clemons found the net for the second time this season to give Midwestern a commanding 3-1 lead.

But it took the Lady Buffs all of 28 seconds to narrow the Mustangs' lead as Adi Stein scored to pull WT to within 3-2.

"We dropped everyone back and weathered the storm," Trimble said. "Everyone played well today, but Heather Primavera really came up big for us."

Primavera was credited with four saves, but made three critical first-half saves to allow the Mustangs to take a lead into the locker room.

Midwestern State, which improved 11-3-2 on the season and 7-2 in the Lone Star Conference, won for the first time in nine tries in Canyon. The Mustangs are now 1-7-1 on West Texas A&M home surfaces.

The Lady Buffs fell to 11-6 and 5-5.

The Mustangs end the regular season Sunday at Eastern New Mexico.