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The Southeastern Louisiana University women’s soccer team travels this weekend when they take on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Friday night at 7 p.m. and the University of Incarnate Word Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.

The Lady Lions (2-5, 1-2 Southland) enter the weekend led by sophomore Makenzie Maher and junior Mya Guillory with six points each. Maher, a Denham Springs, Louisiana native, leads the Lady Lions with three goals. Guillory, out of St. Amant, Louisiana, has netted two goals along with two assists.

Southeastern is eyeing the wave of momentum following last Thursday’s 2-0 win over Houston Baptist on the road. SLU was led by reigning Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Week Darby Gillette. The senior netted the match’s first goal on an assist from Guillory and played 70 minutes at defender helping Lady Lions’ Goalkeeper Nadine Maher to five saves and a shutout.

“I thought we did a really good job of minimizing HBU’s strengths,” said fifth-year SLU head soccer coach Chris McBride. “I thought we managed to stop them from playing through the midfield and not allowing their attacks through the middle where they are very dangerous. I thought we did a good job of stopping that.”

SLU will make the trip southwest Thursday morning to Corpus Christi, Texas in preparation for the Friday night matchup with the Islanders (3-5-1, 1-1-1 Southland). A&M-Corpus Christi is looking to bounce back following a 4-0 loss to league-leading Northwestern State (4-3-2, 4-0-0 Southland) last Sunday at home.

The Lady Lions lead the all-time series over the Islanders, 6-2-1, including a 3-1 victory last season at home.

“This is probably one of my favorite trips of the year,” said McBride. “The conference tournament is down there this year and I think it’s a great location and the facilities are fantastic. So, I’m really excited about this trip because we always compete and play well down there. It’s a fun trip that gets us on the coast and I think our players like it.”

The Islanders are led by junior defender Samantha Palomino with four goals scored, including a hat trick in the season opener against Texas Southern.

Following Friday’s match, Southeastern will head north to San Antonio, Texas when they face UIW (0-7-1, 0-2-0 Southland). The Cardinals dropped a pair of Southland contests last weekend at home to Northwestern State and McNeese and are 0-7 at home this season. However, five of the losses have been by one goal.

The Lady Lions lead the all-time series over the Cardinals 4-2-2 including a scoreless tie in last year’s match up in San Antonio. The series has been defensive oriented of late with just three total goals scored in the last three matches. The teams battled to a 1-1 tie in 2018, UIW edged SLU 1-0 in 2019 and the matchup last season in San Antonio was a scoreless tie.

“I think both teams play a similar style,” said McBride “(UIW head coach Emma Wright Cates) is from Britain as well and I think our styles kind of cancel each other out. It’s very similar to a British style soccer game when they go against each other which is why so few goals are scored when we play because of that physical style. They’re a good team that always competes well.”

Live video and stats will be available for both matches this weekend. Links to the matches are available at the Southeastern soccer schedule page located at LionSports.Net.

SCORE ONE MORE CLUB/S CLUB

Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the women’s soccer program are encouraged to join the Score One More Club.  Lion alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners. All membership fees and donations to Score One More Club are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern soccer program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.

SOCIAL MEDIA
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