After 82 minutes of scoreless play in Nicholls’ home opening conference game against Sam Houston State, sophomore midfielder and forward Sara West took advantage of a Sam Houston miscue and scored, putting the Colonels up 1-0 and eventually giving Nicholls the win. “I actually thought that I overshot the goal,” West said. “But after it went in this rush of joy just came over me and it was amazing.”

The Colonels improve to 1-1 in conference and 4-7-1 overall on the season while Sam Houston falls to 0-2 in conference and 2-9 overall.

Sam Houston Head Coach Marcia Oliveria said she is not worried about the early conference games because of how hard her team’s schedule has been, but said she needs her team to get better for the rest of the conference games.

“You take risks when you have as hard a schedule as we do early in the season, but my main focus is about the rest of conference, not these early games,” Oliveria said.

Nicholls Head Coach Cindy Piper said she was proud of her team’s effort and was glad to get the first conference win of the season at home.

“Getting this first win was huge, especially at home,” Piper said. “When you see the faces of the players at the end of the game, you can see how big this is for our team.”

Sam Houston led in shots by period with 19 shots, while Nicholls had 12. Colonels’ junior goalie Sarah Neunzig had four saves on the day, shutting down a Bearkat offense that finished as the runner-up in the conference tournament last year.

Freshman midfielders Michelle Branscome and Alicia Gautreau led the Colonels in shots on goal with two each, the lone goal coming from West with an assist coming from Jessica Schwartz.

The Colonels will stay at home as the team will host McNeese St. Sunday at 1 p.m.