HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana women's soccer team will look to protect its Southland Conference lead when it hits the road for a pair of Southland Conference matches this week.
 
The Lady Lions (8-1-1, 3-0 Southland) will open their trip to Texas on Friday with a 7 p.m. match at Houston Baptist (4-3-1, 2-1 Southland). On Sunday, SLU will be at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (0-7-2, 0-2-1 Southland) for a 1 p.m. match. Live stats for both matches and live video for Sunday's match, provided by the host teams, will be accessible at LionSports.net.
 
As the only team to go through the first two weeks of the league schedule unbeaten and untied, Southeastern is alone atop the Southland Conference standings. SLU enters the trip with a seven-match unbeaten streak and four-match winning streak with its only loss of the season being a 3-0 loss at No. 1 and defending national champion Florida State on Aug. 28.
 
Southeastern extended its hot run on Sunday with a 1-0 victory over Abilene Christian. Junior Lauren Lorentz headed in a corner kick from sophomore Ana Zadro to break the scoreless tie with about 20 minutes remaining to fuel the Lady Lion victory.
 
The Lady Lions are the second-ranked offense in Division I, while also leading the nation in total assists and points. Southeastern has 33 goals through the first 10 matches of the season. Senior Gisenia Utreras leads the team with seven goals, while junior Marisa Rodrigues and sophomore Maggie Ramsey have four goals each. In total, 12 different SLU players have found the net this season.
 
Utreras also leads the team and ranks seventh in the nation with seven assists. Zadro follows with six assists, while freshman Sofia Olsson has five assists on the year.
 
While the Lady Lion offense is putting up huge numbers, the Lady Lion defense has held foes to just eight goals on the season. Senior Cheyenne Maxwell, senior Maddie Allen, sophomore Maddie Kresevic, junior Katie Noonan and freshman Christina Čutura have all played a big role in the SLU defensive effort. Junior goalkeeper Hope Sabadash leads the Southland with six shutouts and has a 0.78 goals against average.
 
HBU will provide Southeastern with a tough test on Friday. Sabriah Spencer leads the defending Southland Tournament champions with three goals, while Ellee Hall has a team-high three assists. Katie Turner (1.05 GAA) has handled the majority of the work in the net for the Huskies.
 
Southeastern will be looking to avenge its two losses to Houston Baptist last season. SLU lost to HBU in the regular season finale and the first round of the Southland Conference Tournament last season.
 
On Sunday, the Lady Lions will take on an Islander team looking for its first win of 2015. Yvette Franco leads Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with two goals. Megan Delaney (2.12 GAA) has handled all the work in goal for A&M-CC.
 
Last season, Utreras scored two goals to fuel a 3-1 Southeastern victory in Hammond.
 
Following this week's action, Southeastern will return to Strawberry Stadium to host Lamar at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9. Admission to all SLU home events is free.