Before the fall, Head Coach Nathan Gillespie and the Lady Lions overcame diverse challenges with a team with more freshman players and surpassed the goals set during the offseason.
Despite losing 2-1 to Lamar in the SLC tournament, SLU looks forward to next season. Their goal before the season was to finish in the top eight in the conference and make the postseason tournament, which they claimed third in the SLC.
In the off-season, they struggled with missed cues in their exhibition match versus ULL and at the beginning of the season.
They finished their non-conference portion of their schedule 1-2-4, but took something away from each game to work on during practice, which made a difference in conference play.
Southeastern struggled to stay aggressive, so the team revamped its game plans in practice to have more scoring opportunities and hold a stronger defense.
Once conference play started, the Lady Lions went on the road to defeat UTRGV with a single goal kicked by the senior forward Emma Ramsey, while they kept the Vaqueros scoreless through the match.
This win helped build the team’s confidence, which encouraged them to tie Nicholls in the Crystal Cup Rivalry and finish the season with an overall record of 6-8-4 and a 5-3-2 mark in the Southland Conference.
“We are very happy as this year was a rebuild for us after nine of our starters graduated last year, so our goal was to qualify for eighth place, and the team did well and overachieved, which will put a good foot in for next year,” Coach Gillespie said.
Freshman players Aja Nelson, Alexandria Knight, and Isabella Fregoso emerged as stars during the season by scoring their first goals and more in a successful campaign.
Senior forward Emma Ramsey finished the year with three goals, ahead of senior midfielder Rylee Franklin, who scored two goals throughout the season.
Ramsey described the effort it took to win their first game of the season versus Southern and said, “We’ve been working so hard in practice and put in overtime working together as a unit on the field, and it felt great to see all that hard work put in really paid off.”
Coach Gillespie spoke about how proud and impressed the team made him after they defeated HCU 2-1 in their last home game of the season.
“This was the result we felt the team deserved. The intensity has been high in practice, working on our game plan, and our big message is that success is built on hard work, which I think everyone was bound by, which encouraged us tremendously,” Gillespie said.
Overall, the team feels they are ready to face any challenges moving forward and finished the season with their heads held high, ready to work.
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