NSU 17 Samantha Hanking
Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
0
Northwestern St. NSU (7-1-1, 5-1-1)
2
Winner Lamar University LU (7-1-0, 6-1-0)
Northwestern St. NSU
(7-1-1, 5-1-1)
0
Final
2
Lamar University LU
(7-1-0, 6-1-0)
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Northwestern St. NSU 0 0 0
Lamar University LU 0 2 2

Game Recap: NSU Soccer | | Bud Denega, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Soccer’s unbeaten streak comes to a close at Lamar

BEAUMONT, Texas — The Northwestern State soccer team's historic-unbeaten start to the season came to a close Friday night at Lamar. The Cardinals netted two late goals en route to 2-0 victory, dealing NSU its first loss of the season. 

"We aren't going to be satisfied by the way we played tonight," said co-head coach Jess Jobe. "Lamar was deserving. Lamar was the better team tonight, and they deserved three points from it." 

It's still tight atop the Southland Conference. The Lady Demons move to 7-1-1 on the season and 5-1-1 in Southland Conference play. Lamar narrowly vaults NSU for first, improving to 7-1-0 overall and 6-1-0 in league action. 

NSU held the reigning conference champs without a goal for more than 82 minutes. That's a testament to a Northwestern State team that was playing without the services of a couple starters due to injury. 

"We spent a lot for time defending," Jobe said. "That's something we knew going in was going to be part of the challenge when you play Lamar that has as many attacking threats."

Lamar leading goal-scorer Esther Okoronkwo is one of those attacking threats. She entered Friday with a team-best six goals and netted her seventh in the 83rd minute. Anessa Byerman recorded the Cardinals' final goal in the 85th minute. 

NSU junior goaltender Acelya Aydogmus registered five saves. Lamar finished with 10 shots, seven of which were one frame.

Northwestern State had seven shots and four were on target. Junior Nicole Henry and sophomores Olivia Draguicevich, Kaitlyn Poirrier and Samantha Hanking laid claim to those four shots. 

Jobe had hopes his offense could create a few more opportunities, but it just didn't materialize. 

"We felt like we could have been more threatening in our attack, being a team that's made things really difficult for our opponents," Jobe said. "But Lamar did a really good job to limit things, and they didn't make it easy for us from an attacking standpoint."

Northwestern State will look to bounce back Sunday at McNeese. That match is set to begin at 1 p.m. at Cowgirl Field. 

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