Nicholls soccer begins Southland Conference play as road-trip winds down

The Nicholls State women’s’ soccer team will complete the last leg of their six-game
road trip this weekend. They will travel to face Southland Conference foe, Lamar University, on
Friday and then will play Southern University in a non-conference match on Sunday.

The game against Lamar will be the Colonels’ first test against a conference opponent this season. The
Colonels come into the weekend series with a 2-4 record on the season.

Now that Southland Conference play has arrived, each conference game will carry more
magnitude as the team plays for points. Points earned throughout the season will determine if
teams will make the Southland Conference Tournament at the end of the season and will also
play a part in the seeding of the tournament. Strategies and adjustments that were employed
during the first six games of the season were made with Conference play in mind.

“Against ULL (the University of Louisiana at Lafayette), we managed to play ten
sophomores and freshmen so everyone has had some experience on the field coming into
conference. We have a very young team, so for a lot of them, it’s their first taste of what a
conference game is. I don’t think they’ll be scared because I don’t think they know any better,”
said head coach Mac McBride.

The Colonels will face a formidable opponent in Lamar University. Lamar currently
holds the best record in the Southland Conference with a 5-2- 1 mark. In last year’s matchup, the
Colonels tied Lamar 0-0.

“Lamar has the quickest attacking trio that we’ll see all season. They have very potent
attacking options. It will be very difficult to handle their athleticism,” said McBride of Friday’s
opponent.

Sunday’s matchup versus Southern University will mark the last non-conference game of
the season for the Colonels. Southern comes into the weekend with a 0-4 record on the season. In
last year’s matchup between these two teams, the Colonels were victorious by a wide margin,
winning 8-0.