HAMMOND – The defending Southland Conference champion Southeastern Louisiana women's soccer team will officially open the 2014 season this week with a pair of non-conference matches.
The Lady Lions open the season on Friday, heading to Jackson State for a 4 p.m. match. SLU opens its nine-match home schedule on Sunday, welcoming in-state foe Louisiana-Lafayette for a 4 p.m. contest. Fans can receive live in-game updates via Twitter by following Southeastern Athletics (@sluathletics) and Southeastern Soccer (@slusoccer).
Southeastern returns nine starters from last season's team, which finished 14-4-5 overall, won the Southland Conference Tournament and appeared in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in school history. Among those returning starters, six are preseason All-Southland Conference selections.
On offense, Southeastern returns 11 of the 12 players who scored goals in 2013. Sophomore
Bri Singh led the team with nine goals a season ago and was joined on the preseason All-Southland Conference team by junior
Kayla Vera (three goals, five assists in 2013).
Sophomore goalkeeper
Hope Sabadash, the 2013 Southland Conference Freshman of the year and Tournament MVP, returns after finishing her freshman campaign with a 0.67 goals against average and nine shutouts. Sabadash is guarded by a veteran back line that includes senior
Chelsea Villaescusa, junior
Erin Christ, senior
Jen Babcock and sophomore
Alexsis Cable.
Southeastern will be facing Friday's opponent, Jackson State, for the fifth time in school history and the Lady Lions have won the previous four meetings. In the 2013 season opener, SLU defeated JSU, 3-1, in Strawberry Stadium. Sophomore
Katie Noonan, sophomore
Marisa Rodrigues and junior
Casey Peacock all scored goals in the victory.
Southeastern leads the all-time series with Louisiana-Lafayette, 6-2-2. Last season, then-senior
Kelsey Salcido scored the game-winning goal in the seventh minute of double overtime in a 2-1 SLU victory in Lafayette.
Following the opening week's action, Southeastern will hit the road next week, traveling to Alcorn State for a 4 p.m. match on Thursday, Aug. 28.
