HAMMOND- The McNeese Cowgirls (2-3-1, 2-2-1 SLC) will look to get back in the win column on Friday night when they visit Southeastern Louisiana (2-2-1, 2-2-1 SLC) for Southland Conference women's soccer action. The Pokes will follow up Friday night's contest with an exhibition match on Sunday at Louisiana-Lafayette. Live stats will be available for Friday's game on the McNeese Athletics website at McNeeseSports.com.
The Lady Lions hold the all-time series advantage at 21-9-5 dating back to the first contest in 1996. The Cowgirls topped SLU 1-0 in the last matchup over a year ago at Cowgirl Field. McNeese looks to upset Southeastern at home in a long running matchup that has been decided by just one goal in seven of the last ten games.
The Pokes are coming off a two-game road trip last weekend that saw a 1-1 tie at UIW on Friday and a 1-0 loss to ACU on Sunday. The Cowgirls were led by Havana Johnson on Friday night who scored the equalizer in 70th minute to keep McNeese in the game. In Sunday's loss, senior goalkeeper Emma Roccaforte played in her second game back from injury and looked like her old self in between the posts by allowing just one goal.
"For us, it's about continuing to try to put our mark on the match," said fifth year head coach Drew Fitzgerald. "We've been poor in possession all season and with players in and out, we haven't found a rhythm. Hopefully, we take another step towards being a more complete team on Friday."
Southeastern's two wins of the season were over second place Lamar and third place Stephen F. Austin with those being the only conference losses for both squads. Four of the last five of Lady Lions' matches have ended in overtime. The Lady Lions are coming off an exciting home matchup that saw SLU junior, Jamie Raines, lift her team over SFA with 105th minute golden goal in double overtime.
"SLU looks more dangerous in the attack than they've been in previous years," said Fitzgerald. "They always play well at home and have been playing very tough to end up in those OTs with enough weapons to finish matches. Some of the goals they've conceded have been flukes, so we expect their defense to be solid as well."
McNeese will head to Lafayette on Sunday afternoon for a friendly exhibition against ULL. Being that the squad only got one conference game under its belt before SLC action began it was important to coach Fitzgerald to schedule an exhibition match.
"For us, the exhibition is a big opportunity to get in matches and experiment with both players and tactics. It's been very challenging this season to be launched into conference play with only one match under our belt in over a year. We've been learning on the fly and had to try to really minimize risk because every game counts. The exhibition lets us see more players and try some ideas that are maybe riskier than we've been playing but make sense for us and could pay off," said Fitzgerald on Sunday's friendly.
