DENTON – In a rematch of last season's conference championship game, the defending champion North Texas soccer team once again prevailed and remains unbeaten in league play after its 1-0 home victory over Southern Miss on Thursday.

(RV) The Mean Green's Olivia Klein headed in the match's only goal, which came in 40th minute right before halftime. It's her second goal of the year. 

Senior Dominique James fired away a free kick from midfield that was headed by Brooke Lampe in the box, then Brittnye Lawson to the end of the six-yard box where Klein out-jumped the USM keeper and headed it over her head into the net. 

"We came at them pretty hard right from the start but to be up only 1-0 towards the end of the game was pretty frustrating to say the least," said head coach John Hedlund. "Give Southern Miss credit they're very resilient team when it comes to defending, saving balls off the line, making great plays in the box and their keeper played outstanding all night. Once again our defense played great and it was nice to see Olivia come up with a big goal for us to get the result. We'll rest up and get ready for another outstanding opponent come Sunday."

Though that was the team's only goal on Thursday, the Mean Green put up plenty of good looks including a perfect ball from freshman Michelle Gonzalez who chipped the Southern Miss backline and found Berklee Peters open. However, Peters' shot would go just wide.

Additionally, the Mean Green took nine corner kicks to USM's one. 

A stout defensive performance once again by UNT (7-3-0, 2-0-0) limited the Golden Eagles (5-5-0, 0-2-0) to just two shots on goal. USM had recently beaten Auburn on the road 2-0. In the preseason they beat Mississippi State 1-0 on the road. 

Thursday marked North Texas' sixth shutout win of the year. They have yet to give up a goal in league play as they beat Old Dominion last week 1-0 as well. Also with the win, North Texas and and UTEP are the only 2-0-0 teams left in conference play. 

North Texas, who put up 21 shots on Thursday versus Southern Miss, has now a season average of 20.6 per game, which is by far the most in C-USA.

With the home conference win North Texas extends its already NCAA record to 51 straight home conference matches without a loss. They'll aim to even further that record on Sunday when they host Middle Tennessee at 1 p.m.