HOUSTON, Texas – The McNeese women's soccer team went toe-to-toe Friday night with one of the top teams in the Southland Conference but were unable to overcome a second-half surge from Houston Baptist and eventually fell to the defending SLC Tournament champions, 3-1, at Sorrels Field in Houston.
 
The loss dropped the Cowgirls to 6-9 overall on the year and 3-6 in league play. The Huskies, who have now won four out of their last five matches, improved to 9-4-1 and 7-2 in conference action.
 
HBU struck first in the 11^th minute of the match as Ellee Hall's goal gave the Huskies a 1-0 lead.
 
However, McNeese struck back in the 21^st minute with a goal to tie the match at 1-1. Sophomore Gabi D'Alesandro took advantage of a free kick following a HBU penalty and scored from 20 yards out to knot up the score. The goal was D'Alesandro's team-leading fourth on the season. Friday's match was also the second consecutive contest that D'Alesandro registered a goal.

"I thought the kids played hard tonight," said McNeese head coach Scooter Savoie. "In the first half we were able to make some good adjustments in reaction to their goal and turned the pace of the game in our favor. We had a good run there in the rest of the first half. Gabi (D'Alesandro) did a great job at scoring one of the prettiest goals of the year."
 
The two teams squabbled and countered each other's moves for the first eight minutes following the intermission period. It wasn't until the 54^th minute of the game that HBU used a shot that landed just under the cross bar and broke the tie, giving the Huskies a 2-1 lead.
 
Houston Baptist tacked on another goal in the 61^st minute of action for a 3-1 scoring advantage over McNeese.

It was just the fourth time this season that the Cowgirls had surrendered three or more goals.

"In the second half I thought that the had a good run of play and we seemed to overadjust a bit," said Savoie. "We tried to create some things for oursevles and ended up getting exposed on a few plays. HBU did a good job and we needed to play better so hopefully these last two will see some good runs forward and give ourselves a chance to win."

With just two contests remaining in the regular season, the Cowgirls will be focused on scoring as many points in the league standings with hopes of making the postseason for a second consecutive season.
 
The total shots column favored the Huskies who recorded 16 total to the Cowgirls' 6. HBU also led in corner kicks, 8-2.
 
D'Alesandro and sophomore Sara Ortiz paced the offense with two shots apiece while senior goalkeeper Maggie Marks took the loss despite coming up with three saves in the match.
 
The Cowgirls are slated to be back in action Sunday afternoon when they travel to take on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 1 p.m. Follow the @McNeeseSoccer timeline on Twitter for more updates regarding schedule and time as well as changes due to weather.