Lady Lions soccer wins 3-2 in first home game vs Southern

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Hydee Holsapple

Teammates run towards the center of the field for a celebratory hug. The Lady Lions took the win over Southern 3-2 with the winning goal scored by center-back Emma Jones.

The Southeastern ladies’ soccer team is now 2-1 in the season. Senior midfielder Mya Guillory opened the match with a goal in the first ten minutes–her first goal of the season. Juniors Kelsey Fuller and Emma Jones followed with two more goals for a final score of 3-2.

The first half was intense as both teams had one goal. Southern scored early on in the second half which gave them the lead. SLU had to bring their A-game for the remainder of the match. 

Fuller netted the equalizer near the halfway mark of the second half before Jones scored the winning goal with under three minutes to go. 

Jones was Southland Conference Defensive Player of the Week last week. She is typically a center-back, but decided to go for the goal. 

“We were tied 2-2 and I was like ‘I really want to win,’ so I just went for it. Thank goodness it went in,” Jones said with excitement. 

She described achieving the winning goal as one of the best feelings.

The Lady Lions’ new head coach Nathan Gillespie celebrated his second win of the year and his first win at Strawberry Stadium.

“The first home game was great. It was great to see the fans on our side and it was great to get the result we wanted. As the game went on and we were growing in the game, the crowd was getting louder and that really helped our girls, so we will need more of that as the season goes on, for sure,” Gillespie said.

On Sunday, Sept.4, Southeastern will travel to South Alabama for their next game starting at 5 p.m. 

“We are playing against a very big team in South Alabama, they’ve got a number of conference championships in the last few years, they had a great 0-0 title with Mississippi State last night, so we’ve done some research. We’ve watched film on them, so we can see the little movements and patterns they are looking for and, hopefully, we can share this with the girls and make them aware of that movement.”