By: Matthew Bonnette, Associate SID
MONROE – After opening up the 2011 season with an unfortunate 1-0 overtime loss at Louisiana-Lafayette, preseason All-Southland Conference midfielder Rachel O'Steen and her Northwestern State Lady Demons will visit Louisiana-Monroe at 4:30 Tuesday afternoon in women's soccer action.
The Lady Demons (0-1) fell victims to an own-goal in the 94th minute in Friday night's loss at ULL, but will look for some redemption while searching for their first win at ULM.
“Playing an in-state rival like Monroe is always an important game for us,” said head coach Jimmy Mitchell who is 12-3-2 against the Warhawks in his 12-year career at NSU. “They're a much improved team and won one and tied one in their first two games. I'm sure they feel pretty confident heading into our contest.”
With one game under their belt, the Lady Demons are always searching for improvements.
“After watching the video of that game (ULL), we noticed some things that we can do a lot better on and we have worked on those in practice. We need to do a better job in the midfield defensively and also finish our chances, which we had quite a few at Lafayette.”
NSU attempted 10 shots against the Ragin Cajuns and had six of those shots on-goal. ULL took 13 shots with seven on-goal with the lone goal coming off the hands of NSU goalkeeper Jessica Danku among a host of players off a cornerkick.
“It was unfortunate what happened, but that happens,” said Mitchell. “I feel really good about where we are depth wise and there are a few girls that didn't play at ULL that I have the utmost confidence in them to step in and contribute in a positive way.”
NSU has won the last six meetings against the Warhawks and the last two by shutouts. During that six-game winning streak, the Lady Demons are outscoring ULM by a 18-3 margin.
The Lady Demons will open up their home schedule on Friday when they host Arkansas-Little Rock at 7 p.m. at the Lady Demon Soccer Complex.
