Southeastern’s women’s soccer team improved their record to 5-4-3 on the season with a 2-1 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Friday.  

Defense was key for their victory over the Islanders. Sophomore Olivia Griffin had six saves in the win, including a key save late in the game with under four minutes remaining, which ultimately gave SLU the win. Griffin dove fully outstretched to tip Rachel Loetzer’s shot onto the crossbar and out, preserving her squad’s one goal advantage with a stunning piece of goalkeeping. 

As a team, Southeastern was able to swarm to the ball every time TAMUCC was in possession, and this caused multiple turnovers. Their physicality in this matchup is what gave the Lady Lions the edge in the win. 

“We knew that they don’t want to be physical—if we could get up in their face, close them down, and high-press them, we were going to force turnovers and give ourselves the opportunity to open them up and attack,” said head coach Nathan Gillespie. 

To kick things off, SLU scored just 8:16 into the game, courtesy of a TAMUCC own goal. Then, sophomore Sara Bancevic tapped home a beautiful set piece routine to double Southeastern’s lead at the 24:55 minute mark.

Junior defender Emma Jones delivered a pinpoint ball into the box from a deep free kick near the halfway line, which found senior midfielder Victoria Brackmann who played the ball across the goal into the path of the streaking Serbian.

Corpus Christi did halve the deficit with a goal from Mai-Lisa Atis (40:53) just before halftime. The freshman forward’s rebound effort fizzed under the crossbar after Griffin performed a kick save on redshirt junior Natalie Gonzalez’s initial effort on goal.

The Green and Gold’s offense cooled off in the second half; however, the Lady Lions were able to keep their defensive pressure up and play together as a team. Gillespie talked about how this win was important going forward, and to build upon the success they’ve found. 

“To take the win going into Sunday helps with the team’s morale and confidence. We’ve got something to prove against HCU after the way we played against them earlier on in the season,” Gillespie said.  

On Sunday Oct. 16, the Lady Lions went head-to head with HCU, but were unable to overpower the Huskies, ultimately losing the game 2-0.

Southeastern sported pink jerseys in support of Breast Cancer Awareness on the afternoon.

During the first half, SLU played strong defense and kept Houston Christian from scoring.

The team kept a positive attitude going into the second half.

“I think the team as a whole works well together, whether on the bench or on the field. The positivity is what keeps us going,” said junior midfielder, Halie Yoder.

Head Coach Nathan Gillespie felt the team was prepared for the game but made simple mistakes that the Huskies took full advantage of.

“I think they really capitalized on the mistakes we made, other than that I think we were prepared for what they were going to do. We had a good game plan going into it. We made a couple of mistakes and they just capitalized on them and we didn’t capitalize on theirs,” said Gillespie.

Moving forward, graduate student and midfielder, Claire Huston, feels the team needs to move on as a group to be successful in their upcoming matches.

“We need to stay together through the whole game, move forward and defend as a unit. If we attack and defend as a unit, then we’ll all play together and have each other’s backs,” said Huston. 

Southeastern drops to 5-5-3 on the year with a 3-3-3 conference record. 

The Lady Lions will have a few days to prepare for their upcoming game on the road at Nicholls State on Friday, Oct. 21, in Thibodaux.