The Lady Colonels soccer team dropped their season opener 6-0 to the Southern Miss. Golden Eagles in Hattiesburg on Sunday. The Colonels’ depth was no match for the Golden Eagle’s offense as the Eagles combined for six scores, four of which came in the second period. The Lady Colonels combined for a total of only two shot attempts while allowing 34 by Southern Miss.
The team’s lack of firepower helped contribute to the shutout with senior forward Alicia Gautreau out with an injury and junior forward Kaity Mattsson out of the line-up due to a red card in the final game of the 2008 season.
The Colonels had trouble with fouls accumulating 10 with five in each period. One also resulted in a free kick allowing the Eagles to add another goal to their lead.
Trying to avoid a repeat of last year’s disappointing 2-16 season, first-year coach Dylan Harrison is looking to build upon the team’s first loss.
“It would be one thing if we played our best game and that was the result, but that definitely wasn’t the case… We can play much better than that.” Harrison said. “One of the things we are looking to move forward with is getting into a more competitive mindset. One thing we need to improve on is that when we give up a goal, early or late, we still want to pick up the intensity and respond from that.”
Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Molly Merserau started her first game since having a season-ending injury in August of last year.
Merserau produced six out of 13 saves against the Golden Eagles.
“Molly made quite a few big saves and it would not have been nearly as close without her,” Harrison said.
Harrison is also trying to find ways to help the Colonels improve for their next game.
“Our next goal is to make sure we have the proper mental and tactical understanding of what we need to do to get ourselves back into games.”
For the first home game of the season, the Lady Colonels face off against the Southern Jaguars on Friday at 4 p.m. Two more home games will follow; the first will be against Troy on August 30 and the second against Louisiana Tech on Sept. 4.
