Nicholls soccer closes out regular season at home with playoffs on the line

Nicholls soccer’s final game of the season will undoubtedly be their most important. In a
win-and- your-in scenario, the Colonels will face Southeastern Louisiana University on Friday at
3 p.m. Nicholls (6-10- 1, 3-6- 1 SLC) controls its own destiny, as a victory will get the team the
eighth and final spot in the Southland Conference playoff race.

Nicholls can also make the tournament with a tie versus Southeastern and a loss from the
University of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Colonels’ overtime victory versus A&M-Corpus
Christi earlier in the season gives them the tiebreaking advantage in this scenario.

Nicholls has been faced with situations like the one they’re in this weekend before. The
Colonels faced Southeastern in the final game of the season with the playoffs on the line the past
two years, but were unable to come away with victories both years. Those losses have been fresh
in the minds of coaches and players this week, as assistant coach Danny Free said, “[Losing
these past two years] still hurts. The senior class made the Conference tournament their first year
then the last two years, we’ve been in that last playoff position and lost it on the last game, so it
hurts. Hopefully they can take that hurt and turn it to a bit of anger and take it out on the field on
Friday.”

Free also pointed out that players will rely on their experience from the past two games
versus Southeastern for Friday’s game. “There’s a bit of pressure knowing that if we lose our
season is done, but then there is the excitement that if we win we get to go [to the tournament].
The girls have been here before, they’ve done it before, so hopefully we can use that experience
to get a different outcome this year.”

Southeastern comes into Friday’s match with a 4-10- 3 season record and 2-6- 2
Conference record, currently placing them one spot below the Colonels in the Southland
Conference playoff standings. The Lions are coming off a 1-0 loss last weekend at the hands of
Central Arkansas University.

“They’ve lost a lot of players from last year. They’re a good attacking team, they get into
good positions, they score good goals. It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be a battle out there.
Taking it into account that it’s going to be Southeastern as well, it’s going to be a bit of a scrap,”
said Free.