ABILENE, Texas – Abilene Christian scored two goals in the first half to give the Wildcats an early lead over the Northwestern State soccer team in a 3-0 loss for the Lady Demons Friday afternoon in Southland Conference action at Shotwell Stadium.
NSU falls to 3-10-1 on the season and 0-5-1 in Southland Conference play, and has to make a trip to McNeese State for 1 o'clock start time against the Cowgirls at Cowgirl Field. Abilene Christian (7-6-1, 4-1-1 SLC) has a shot at first place when it hosts league leading Stephen F. Austin on Sunday.
"I'm heartbroken for the team. They came out strong and we had a few minutes where we let down and a very good ACU team capitalized on it," said head coach
George Van Linder. "At halftime we all felt that we could get it back despite the odds."
Leslie Snider knocked in her second goal of the season to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead in the 20
th minute. She headed the ball into the upper right corner off of an ACU corner kick. Ten minutes later Megan Baer headed a ball inside of six yards into the middle of the net, and was assisted y Deonna Calhoun and Alyssa Gerner.
It was Baer's first goal of the season.
Kate Seay also scored her first goal of the season in the 47
th minute when she collected her own rebound after she hit the post and scored from inside the six-yard mark.
"In the second half we battled and had a few good chances, but they had one and capitalized," said Van Linder. "As a team we are frustrated, we wanted that one. I am sure the team will carryover that determination and will make an impact on Sunday."
Northwestern State was outshot by ACU, 20-9, and had six shots on goal compared to the Wildcats' 13.
Alex Latham (3-8-1) took the loss in goal on 90 minutes played, and collected 10 saves in the 20 shots faced. ACU goalkeeper Kelsey Dombrowski improved to 4-2-1 for the year and had six saves in the shutout.
Sophomore midfielder
Camila Ardila and freshman Caché Haley led NSU with two shots, and both had one on goal.
Jackie Strug,
Peyton Rector,
Cassandra Briscoe,
Brooke Eastburg and
Yanci Johnson all contributed with one shot eacg.
Sarah Schoch led all players with four shots, and Snider and Seay each had three shots.
After McNeese State, Northwestern State ends its five-game road swing with Nicholls at 4 o'clock on Oct. 17 at the Nicholls Soccer Complex. The Lady Demons round out the regular season at home against Southeastern Louisiana (Oct. 19), Incarnate Word (Oct. 31) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Nov. 2)
