Oct. 11, 2009
Box Score
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - The Colonels had chances for their first conference win of the season on Sunday as the Nicholls State University women's soccer team (4-10-0, 0-3-0 Southland Conference) generated eight shots and took three corner kicks. Unfortunately, for the Colonels, the Sam Houston State (5-6-2, 3-1-0 Southland) defense held firm and the Bearkat offense capitalized on 16 shots with a pair of goals to hand the Colonels a 2-0 loss on Sunday.
The Bearkats improved to 3-1-0 in conference play, while the Colonels remain winless in their first three conference contests against some of the league's better squads.
Sam Houston struck first as Kirby Zak and Leah Snelson work the ball ahead to Emily Jurecka who beat the Colonel defense for her first goal of the year in the fourth minute of the first half.
After that, play slowed considerably. Sam Houston's field, like most of the fields in the league, has been hit hard with heavy rains for the past few weeks. As a result, the swampy field led to slow play, and neither side could get their offense going in the rest of the first half.
Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Molly Mersereau turned away five more shots in the first half to keep the Colonels in game. Unfortunately, Bearkat netminder Jenny Pence turned away four Nicholls shots, two of which came from sophomore forward Kandice Champagne to send the match into the half with Nicholls trailing 1-0.
The Bearkats managed to find the back of the net early after play resumed. Snelson took a pass from Zak and got through the Colonel defense to make it 2-0 Bearkats in the 58th minute.
The Colonels tried to rally as Champagne tallied a team-high five shots on the afternoon and Nicholls created chances with three corner kicks in the second half. However, Pence turned away the Colonels the rest of the way for the 2-0 win.
The Colonels will now return to Nicholls to host the Southland Conference's defending regular season and tournament champion Texas State Bobcats on Friday. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. at the Nicholls State Soccer Complex. Admission is free to all Nicholls students with a valid ID and all children age five and under.
