Lady Lions roll past Nicholls in 4-0 shutout on Senior Night

Published 11:13 am Monday, November 1, 2021

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The Southeastern Louisiana University women’s soccer team jumped out to a two-goal lead in the first six minutes cruising to a 4-0 win over Nicholls on Senior Night Friday against Nicholls at Strawberry Stadium.

The Lady Lions (6-8-3, 4-5-3 Southland) scored less than two minutes into the match when junior Mya Guillory scored her team-leading fifth goal of the season off an assist from sophomore Haylli Roe.

SLU quickly added to their lead as Ellie Williams lofted a lead pass in front of the Nicholls net to Jamie Raines. Raines, a senior from Covington, Louisiana, did the rest as she headed the ball into the net for her second goal of the season.

Near the end of the first half, senior Lexie Gundersen scored off the right foot from 20 yards out on a nice lead from Roe making it 3-0 going into halftime.

The Colonels (0-16, 0-12 Southland) finished the first half with out a shot as the SLU defense was relentless.

In the second half, Makenzie Maher put the icing on the cake as she scored her fifth goal of the season off the assist from Guillory as the two finished the regular season tied for the team lead.

“It was a good game tonight,” said SLU soccer head coach Chris McBride. “It was nice to go out on a positive note for the seniors that mean so much to this program. These seniors have helped build the program to where it is today so to go out tonight with a win and good performance, I’m very proud of our girls for that.”

Southeastern finished the match with 21 shots to Nicholls three. The Lady Lions also had 10 shots on goal and four corner kicks.

It was the perfect way to follow up the pregame senior ceremony where the Lions paid tribute to senior Nadine Maher, Megan Gordon, Mia Milton, Gundersen and Rains all playing in their final home game.

“They’ve all been here since I got here,” said McBride. “They mean a lot to me personally. They came in and took a chance on me as a first time head coach and they’ve worked tooth and nail to develop over the years and put their heart and soul into the program.”

Following the match, the Lady Lions were presented with the inaugural Crystal Cup Trophy which will be awarded each year to the winner of the SLU and Nicholls yearly soccer series. The cup was presented to Lady Lions’ head coach Chris McBride by Marcia Barr, the widow of the late avid SLU supporter Cameron Barr.

Southeastern, the reigning Southland Tournament champions, finished the regular season as the fifth seed as they will play in the opening round of the 2021 Southland Conference Tournament Wednesday night at 7 p.m. against fourth-seeded Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (7-10-1, 5-6-1 Southland).

“It’s one game at a time now,” said McBride. “It’s just about us focusing on what we do. We need to execute a little more on the offensive side and tighten things up on the defensive side which is where we have had some mistakes in some 1-0 games. Hopefully we can tune that up this weekend prior to the tournament Wednesday and get ready for kickoff down in Corpus Christi.”

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.

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