AUBURN, Ala. – As planned, Southeastern Louisiana's defense kept it in its first round Women's College Cup match at No. 19 Auburn Saturday night but the Tigers was able to make a late first-half goal by Kristen Dodson hold up, staving off a late run by the Lady Lions to come away with a 1-0 victory.
 
"We were in it to the end and our kids performed fantastically," Southeastern head coach Blake Hornbuckle said. "I'm very proud of their performance. I'd like to congratulate Auburn as they advance to the second round. I thought we put our best foot forward and played a great match. To lose out 1-0, we are extremely proud of their performance.
 
"The gameplan was to frustrate them defensively and force them to send balls deep and they did that quite a bit. We did a good job of cutting balls out and generating in the attack and in the end we were almost there where we needed to be. In the last 10 minutes we were able to create some opportunities and we were pleased with the effort to get those opportunities. And the play of (goalkeeper) Hope (Sabadash) tonight was just tremendous."
 
Sabadash made 11 saves, most of the acrobatic type, for Southeastern (13-5-4). No. 4 seed Auburn (15-5-1) advances to the second round to play Texas Tech, a 1-0 winner over North Texas, on Friday in Tallahassee, Fla.
 
Trailing 1-0 on Saturday, Southeastern's Gisenia Utreras juked in and crossed to Amber Lasher who chipped a shot high with 13 minutes remaining.
 
Katie Noonan's shot was deflected wide with less than 10 minutes left. After a corner by Vanessa Arzaluz was deflected out, Maddie Kresevic's header off a corner by #13 was blocked with 8:30 remaining.
 
Utreras shot from 30 yards out went well right in the final seconds.
Auburn controlled the ball for most of the first half with Sabadash making eight of her saves in the first 45 minutes.
 
Sabadash saved a shot by Taylor Troutman with 42:15 left in the half, then dove to deflect away an attempt by Ellie Leek after a header by Casie Ramsier went wide at the 40-minute mark.
 
Brooke Ramsier shot wide off a corner from Troutman at 36:15. Sabadash then grabbed a header by Casie Ramsier off a pass from Brooke Ramsier with 31:53 remaining.
 
Casie Ramsier had a pair of goals negated by offsides calls over the next five minutes. Samantha Solaru and Casie Ramsier then missed wide, keeping the match scoreless at the 21-minute mark.
 
Southeastern got its first shot at the 20-minute mark as Kayla Vera had her attempt blocked by the Auburn defense.
 
Sabadash dove to deflect away a sliding attempt by Brooke Ramsier with 15:10 remaining. She then grabbed a shot in the box by Ramsier at 7:30 and followed with another diving save of a shot by Schell at 6:20.
 
With 4:46 remaining, Dodson ran down the right sidelines and passed to Casie Ramsier, Ramsier's shot was blocked but Dodson knocked in the rebound from 10 yards out to make it 1-0.
 
Sabadash kept it a one-goal match by diving to deflect an attempt by Casie Ramsier just wide of the left post with 4:10 remaining. Brooke Ramsier then took a penalty kick after Dodson was fouled in the box but sent it high with 3:10 left.
 
Auburn kept the pressure on as the second half opened as Sabadash leapt to deflect away a shot by Dodson at the 40:45 mark.
 
Sabadash dove to grab a shot by Troutman with 35:10 remaining.
 
Maggie Ramsey sent a shot in that was grabbed by Auburn keeper Sarah Le Beau with 34:50 left.
 
Kala Faulker headed a corner by Brooke Ramsier high with 26 minutes remaining. Dodson then sent in a harder liner that Sabadash snared with 24 minutes left.
 
Sabadash blocked a straight-on attempt by Casie Ramsier on a breakaway at the 20-minute mark. Logan Beal's rebound was blocked before Sabadash dove to her left to knock away Brooke Ramsier's rebound attempt.
Arzaluz sent in a shot from the right wing that was grabbed by Le Beau.
 
Casie Ramsier was denied again by Sabadash who jumped to deflect away a shot with 16 minutes left. Sophie Simantel then headed a corner wide with less than 14 minutes left.