HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana women’s soccer team will hit the road for the first time during Southland Conference play this week, facing Texas State and UTSA in league road matches.
The Lady Lions (6-3-1, 0-2 SLC) will face Texas State (5-3-3, 1-0-1 SLC) on Friday at 7 p.m. in San Marcos, Texas. From there, Southeastern will head to UTSA (4-8, 1-1 SLC) on Sunday for a 1 p.m. league contest.
Southeastern will look to bounce back from a tough open to conference play. On Friday, a late first half goal sent SFA past the Lady Lions, 1-0. Despite out-shooting Sam Houston State, 10-3, on Sunday, Southeastern dropped a 1-0 decision to the Bearkats.
Despite the two recent shutouts, Southeastern still leads the SLC and ranks second in the nation with 3.70 goals per game. Sixteen different student-athletes have scored goals for the Lady Lions this season.
Senior forward Kristin McDonald leads the team with seven goals and 17 points on the season. McDonald is followed by freshman
Meaghan Krawczyk, junior
Dana Mayer and junior
Gloria Burkhart, all who have scored four goals this season. Sophomore midfielder
Natalie Santana leads the Southland Conference and ranks 24th nationally with six assists, while junior
Candice Wallace has dished out five assists.
Defensively, Southeastern has also been impressive, allowing 0.70 goals per match behind the backline of junior
Shalayne Heffner, sophomore
Brittany Prieto, sophomore
Nicole Brannigan, senior
Sarah Cheung and freshman
Kyle MacIntosh. Freshman goalkeeper
Lacey Bockhaus has been Southeastern’s lone goalkeeper this season and has a 0.70 goals against average and six shutouts heading into this week’s action.
Friday’s opponent, Texas State, opened up league play with a 2-2 tie at McNeese State last Friday. On Sunday, Britney Curry posted a hat trick in a 4-0 win over Lamar.
Curry, who was named SLC Offensive Player of the Week on Tuesday, leads the Bobcats with seven goals this season. Defensively, TSU ranks 20th in the nation in goals allowed per game. The tandem of Mandy Mawyer (0.46 GAA) and Deborah Ross (0.74 GAA) has split time in the net effectively for Texas State.
Southeastern is 7-7-4 all-time versus Texas State. Last season, the two teams battled to a 0-0 tie in Hammond.
UTSA had an up-and-down opening weekend to league play. Last Friday, UTSA blanked Lamar, 2-0, before losing 4-2 to McNeese State on Sunday.
Allison Dillon leads the Roadrunners with three goals, followed by Veronica Najera, Taylor Padia and Sheri Ojayiwola with two goals apiece. Nicoline Joergensen (2.17 GAA) has handle the majority of the work in goal for UTSA.
Southeastern is 2-0 all-time versus UTSA, which started its women’s soccer program prior to the 2006 season. The Lady Lions blanked UTSA, 2-0, last season in Hammond.
Following this week’s road trip, Southeastern will close out its home schedule next week. On Friday, Southeastern will host Central Arkansas at 4:30 p.m. Northwestern State comes to town for Senior Day on Sunday at 1 p.m. McDonald, Cheung, Heffner,
Janae Sheldon and
Jehan Ayap will be honored prior to their final home match in a Southeastern uniform.