COMMERCE, Texas -- Midwestern State junior Callie Briseno (Amarillo, Texas / Amarillo HS) netted her first two goals of the season in a 5-minute span to lift the Mustangs to an important 2-1 Lone Star Conference win over Texas A&M-Commerce here Friday night.
 
The Mustangs improved to 7-2-5 on the season while leveling their league mark at 2-2-2.
 
"Callie's been working hard and this was a nice breakout for her," MSU coach Damian Clarke said. "We made a bit of our luck through hard work today. We work hard to keep the ball and fought hard when we didn't have. That's exactly what we've been asking of them."
 
Briseno chased a loose ball struck by sophomore defender Haley Britton to net her first goal in the 55th minute to level the match at 1-1.
 
"We have them pinned in for a bit and Haley hit a big ball which bounded over their 6-2 keeper (Courtnie Northern)," Clarke said. "We'd been talked about hunting goals and she did that very well tonight."
 
Briseno beat the Lions to the ball on a cross struck by junior midfielder Stephanie Bonilla (Dallas, Texas / South Garland HS (Richland College)) in the 60th minute to give MSU the lead for good at 2-1.
 
MSU redshirt-freshman goalkeeper Courtney Burnette (Irving, Texas / MacArthur HS) made the lead standup from there finishing with seven saves to claim her seventh collegiate victory.
 
"Courtney made a 1 vs. 1 and a 2 vs. 1 save to really keep us in the hunt tonight," Clarke said. "Even on the goal they scored, she made a tremendous save, but they just beat us to it."
 
Texas A&M-Commerce's Savannah Henderson hammered a shot toward the MSU goal in the 41st minute that bounced off of Burnette's hands to a hustling Jade Bell, who tapped in her fifth goal of the season to give the Lions a 1-0 advantage heading into intermission.
 
But Briseno struck for the first time since tallying her only other collegiate goal against Abilene Christian on Oct. 28, 2011 to give the Mustangs a crucial result.
 
"Our goal going into Sunday is to have the mindset of needing two wins in a row," Clarke said. "We are going to battle and see what happens. It's possible to end up anywhere in the (standings). Whoever makes it out (into the playoffs) is going to be battle tested."
 
Midwestern State takes on Texas Woman's Sunday afternoon in Denton. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.
 
Texas A&M-Commerce dropped to 8-5 and 3-3.