The women’s soccer team rallied late against Southeastern Louisiana’s Lions in the first conference game of the year, but didn’t win as they fell 2-1 Sunday. The Colonels had to battle steady rains all afternoon on an already saturated Southeastern soccer field.
The Lions struck the first 15 minutes in with a goal from Maiya Cooper, whose second in the conference in scoring with nine goals.
Southeastern Natalie Santana followed up with another goal at the 35-minute mark, giving the Lions a 2-0 halftime lead.
“It may have taken us some time to adjust to the weather conditions in the first half,” head coach Dylan Harrison said. “We tried to do too much, so we tried to get our girls focused on playing smarter in the second half.”
The Colonels’ defense kept the Lions’ offense, ranked first in the league in goals, points and assists, scoreless and limited the Lions to only five shots when play resumed in the second half.
The Colonels offense gained momentum when sophomore midfielder Carolyn Noble was dragged down just outside of the Southeastern box, drawing a foul that would lead to the Colonels’ first goal of the match.
The Colonels capitalized when sophomore midfielder Sam Etherington played the ensuing free kick to junior midfielder Jasmine Elsayed, who immediately found senior forward Alicia Gautreau for the goal. However, they still lost 2-1.
“It’s good to get that first conference game under your belt and play the way that we did,” Harrison said. “That’s a pretty good team, and the fact that we were able to hang tough with them shows our girls there is no reason we can’t play with teams in this league. We just need to play smarter, continue to work hard, keep creating chances for ourselves and be ready to make teams pay when we get those chances.”
Friday, the Colonels fell to Houston Baptist’s Huskies 3-0 in the last non-conference game of the season.
Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Molly Meresereau stopped 12 shots on goal and recorded nine saves on 10 shots.
The Colonels withheld the onslaught until the 37th minute when Huskie Cindy Hedden collected a cross from teammate Gabby Trujillo to find the net and put the Huskies on top, 1-0.
The Huskies struck again at the 70th minute mark when Huskie Mychael Morris scored and put the Colonels down 2-0. Teammate Isla Cameron scored off of a free kick later to give the Huskies the 2-0 victory.
“The main thing we have to learn from this is that when things aren’t going our way, the only way to change it is to keep working,” Harrison said.
After wrapping up a stretch of three games in six days, the Colonels will hit the road for its second conference road trip of the season. The Colonels will head to Nacogdoches, Texas to take on the Ladyjacks of Stephen F. Austin Friday, before taking on the Bearkats of Sam Houston State in Huntsville, Texas Sunday.
