After a two-overtime 1-1 tie versus Louisiana-Monroe last Friday, the Lady Lions soccer team was defeated 2-0 by the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (ULL) this past Sunday, Sept. 19, 2010, at the Southeastern Soccer Complex.

The first half of the match began with two goals made within the first 15 minutes of regulation.  ULL’s Cayla Chatman scored a goal in the fourth minute of the match. Following the goal, ULL player Courtney Hofland scored at the 11 minute mark of the match. After the two early goals Southeastern played good defense and goalkeeper Lacey Bockhaus saved three shot attempts from finding the back of the net.

Louisiana-Lafayette’s defense was strong through the entire game and their offense began strong, but couldn’t manage to maintain that momentum through the second half.

“Every defense is beatable and we just need to finish opportunities.” said Bockhaus, “They [ULL] were not panicking with the ball, and they were going up for every challenge, so they were keeping it out of their half pretty decently, and when we started rolling up we started getting in.”

The Lions defense came back stronger in the second half of the game. With a total of ten attempted shots in both quarters from ULL, Southeastern only allowed two to get passed.

“In the second half we got a little bit more fire in us,” said midfielder Natalie Santana. “We knew we were better than that team and we knew we just needed to show it. I think we did a lot better in the second half.”

Commenting on ULL defense, Santana said, “They handled the ball very well. They got it up quick. They did what any good defensive team would do.”

 Bockhaus said about the change in attitude in the second half, “We had a really good talk with our coach. We all decided as a team that we needed to step it up when we actually got time to talk as a team about what we needed to fix. It was nice to be able to talk and see how to do certain runs and how we should play the ball.”

“In the second half there was pressure,” said head coach Blake Hornbuckle. “We created several good opportunities with our pressure. They [ULL] did a good job of closing out the opportunities we had whether we were just a touch away from heading it or footing it into the goal.”

The women’s soccer team will be home for its next match on Friday Sep. 24, 2010 playing against Grambling.