Box Score and Play-by-Play

BEAUMONT, Texas - The Nicholls State University women's soccer team (6-3-1, 0-1-0 Southland Conference) could not hold off an aggressive Lamar (3-6-1, 1-0-0 Southland) attack on Friday night as the Cardinals outshot the Colonels 28-8 en route to a 3-0 win in the Southland opener for both teams.

The Nicholls defense, already depleted by an injury to starting freshman defender Christina Bilczuk was dealt another blow early on as senior defender Allison Mylius drew a pair of yellow cards in the first 40 minutes to leave the Colonels without two of their starting defenders for the game.

However, the Colonels still managed to keep the Cardinals at bay in the first half.  The two teams found themselves in a defensive struggle as neither side could break through in the first 45 minutes.  Lamar outshot the Colonels 12-6, but redshirt junior goalkeeper Molly Mersereau recorded seven of her 13 saves in the first and the Nicholls defense forced five Lamar shots off target to keep the Cardinals off the board.

Unfortunately, for Nicholls, the Colonels could not break through against Lamar either.  The Cardinals forced five of the Colonels' eight shots off target, and Lamar goalkeeper Jennifer Gibbs made saves on the Colonels' three shots on goal to hold Nicholls scoreless.  Senior forward Kaity Mattsson, junior midfielder Sam Etherington and freshman forward Melissa Pestalozzi tied for the team lead with two shots each and junior midfielder Keisha Brown and senior defender/midfielder Jasmine Elsayed had one shot each.

Lamar struck first with a goal in the 53rd minute by Lisa Hance, her fourth of the season, to make it 1-0.  From there, the Lamar offense began wearing down the depleted Colonel defense.  The Cardinals extended their lead to 2-0 in the 71st minute on a goal by Jennifer Moore and Amber Thornhill headed in a rebound off the crossbar for the final 3-0 margin in the 83rd minute.

The Colonels will look to rebound when they return to action on Sunday with a trip to McNeese State.  Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. in Lake Charles.