The Louisiana State University Lady Tigers soccer team defeated the Lady Colonels 3-1 Sunday afternoon in Baton Rouge.
The first half was highlighted by LSU’s three goals scored within a 26-minute period.”We were able to get on them early,” George Fotopoulos, LSU co-head coach, said.
Lady Tiger forward Stacy Bishop scored the first LSU goal on a header at the 9:27 mark with an assist by midfielder Caroline Vanderpool.
LSU’s second goal came by way of an assist from forward Bishop to fellow forward Artie Brown for the goal in the 14th minute of the first half. With the goal, Brown, a senior, is seven goals shy of the career goal record at LSU.
Forward Michelle De Cespedes scored LSU’s final goal at the 35:43 mark.
“I think we were a little intimidated,” Cindy Piper, Lady Colonels head coach, said. “We’re still injured. We’re not completely healthy. I probably have maybe three people who started who are completely healthy. We’re still trying to work through that.”
Despite scoring three early goals, Fotopoulos said his team did not play very well. He credits the Lady Colonels’ aggressiveness for that.
“It was a good win, although I didn’t think we played very well today, but I attribute a lot of that to Nicholls play,” Fotopoulos said. “I thought Nicholls played very hard, inspired soccer today.”
Piper said the Lady Colonels, (0-2), have been working on being more aggressive in games.
“We spent some time in practice on being physical,” Piper said. “That’s college soccer. You’ve got to be able to take the fall, but you darn well better be able to give it back. We have to earn some respect, and that’s the only way we’re going to do it.”
In the second half, goals were hard to come by for the Lady Tigers (2-0) as the Lady Colonels shut them out while also scoring a goal of their own.
At the 58:04 mark, Lady Colonels forward Tori Priddy scored the lone Colonel point on a long goal that sailed over the head of LSU goalkeeper Valerie Vogler into the right corner of the goal. It was Priddy’s second goal of the season.
“The goal given up in the second half was a bit unlucky for Valerie Vogler,” Fotopoulos said. “I think that put a little bit of pressure on us and changed the complexion of the game.”
Piper feels that the second half was full of positives for her team.
“There are definitely positives,” Piper said. “I went into the locker room after the game, and I wrote down ‘Second Half: LSU zero, NSU one,’ and then I wrote ‘dominated game’ right next to it. If anyone would have shown up and not seen the score on the score board, that’s what they would have said when they walked away.”
Piper thinks that her team is now playing as a cohesive unit and that excites her.
“We finally have 11 people out on the field at one time who want to play,” Piper said. “There are no more individuals.”
“I was pumped up,” Piper added. “You saw the kids starting to smile, and that’s when you know you’re playing well.”
The Lady Colonels will return to action on Sept. 5 when they travel to play Centenary at Grambling.
