HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana women's soccer team will close out its home schedule this week, hosting Southland Conference rivals Northwestern State and Central Arkansas at the Southeastern Soccer Complex.

 

The Lady Lions (7-4-1, 1-3 SLC) will welcome Northwestern State (7-5-1, 2-1 SLC) on Friday for a 4:30 p.m. contest. On Sunday, Southeastern will close out its home schedule with a 1 p.m. match versus UCA (2-7-1, 0-2-1 SLC).

 

Sunday will also be Senior Day at the Southeastern Soccer Complex. The Lady Lions will honor Kristin McDonald, Shalayne Heffner, Sarah Cheung, Janae Sheldon and Jehan Ayap prior to their final home match in a Southeastern uniform. Senior Day festivities are scheduled to begin at approximately 12:45 p.m.

 

After suffering three straight 1-0 losses to open conference play, Southeastern finally found the net in its last match, earning a 2-1 victory at UTSA last Sunday.Natalie Santana led the way for Southeastern with a goal and her SLC-high seventh assist of the season in the victory. Santana assisted Megan Zahnow on the game-winning goal in the match's 77^th minute.

 

Southeastern comes into its final home weekend having outscored its opponents, 39-9. McDonald leads the team with seven goals, followed by Dana Mayer, Meaghan Krawczyk and Gloria Burkhart. Candice Wallace is second on the team with five assists.

 

The Lady Lion back line of Heffner, Cheung, Brittany Prieto, Nicole Brannigan and Kyle MacIntosh have been solid throughout the fall, allowing 0.75 goals per match. Freshman goalkeeper Lacey Bockhaus has handled all the work in the net for the Lady Lions, posting a 0.74 goals against average and six shutouts.

 

Southeastern will be looking to slow down a Northwestern State offense that has scored 30 goals on the season. The Lady Demons are led by Kayce Schulz's nine goals on the season, while Maddy Hall has four scores. Haley Cheshier leads the team with five assists. Lindsay Strahan (1.41 GAA) has handled the majority of the goalkeeping duties for NSU.

 

Southeastern is 15-9-1 all-time versus Northwestern State, which is its most frequent opponent in school history. In their last meeting, Southeastern eliminated NSU from the Southland Conference Tournament with a 2-0 win behind two goals by Santana.

 

Central Arkansas heads into its Friday match at Nicholls State looking for its first SLC win of the year. UCA has been outscored 29-11 this season. Randi Conley and Stefani Robbs lead the team with two goals apiece. Heather Joye (2.57 GAA) is the team's primary goalkeeper. 

Following Sunday's home finale, Southeastern will hit the road next week for matches at Lamar (Oct. 24) and McNeese State (Oct. 26).