HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana women's soccer program will celebrate the 20
th Anniversary of the program's first season this weekend, when it welcomes back alumni of the program for the two Southland Conference matches it will host at Strawberry Stadium as part of Alumni Weekend.
On Friday, SLU (6-1-1, 1-0 Southland) will host Incarnate Word (2-7, 0-1 SLC) at 7 p.m. Abilene Christian (1-6-2, 0-0-1 Southland) will visit Hammond on Sunday for a 1 p.m. match.
Approximately 40 former soccer student-athletes are expected to return for the Alumni festivities, including players for every previous conference championship team. Several of the team members from the program's inaugural 1995 team will be in attendance. All alumni present will be recognized at halftime of both matches.
The 2015 team is doing its best to join the alumni attendance in the SLU history books, as it carries a five-match unbeaten streak into this week's action. In last Friday's league opener, sophomore
Maddie Kresevic – a two-time Southland Defensive Player of the Week – scored the game-winning goal in a 1-0 win at McNeese State.
Southeastern enters the weekend with the fourth-highest scoring offense in the nation, having scored 25 goals as a team. Senior
Gisenia Utreras and junior
Marisa Rodrigues share the team lead with four goals. Sophomore
Maggie Ramsey follows with three goals, while six different Lady Lions have added two goals each.
The Lady Lions also lead the nation in assists. Utreras tops the conference with six assists, while Rodrigues, freshman
Sofia Olsson and sophomore
Ana Zadro have four helpers each.
Kresevic, senior
Cheyenne Maxwell, senior
Maddie Allen, freshman Christina Čutura and junior
Katie Noonan have all played a part in a Lady Lion defense that has held opponents to seven goals through the season's first eight matches. Junior
Hope Sabadash has handled all the work in goal for the Lady Lions and leads the Southland with a 0.85 goals against average and five shutouts.
UIW comes to Hammond looking for its first Southland victory. Junior Abigail Koenigs leads the team with four goals, while freshman Emani Stewart has added three scores. Seniors Karly Brightwell (2.67 GAA) and Heather Kowalik (3.09 GAA) have split time in net for the Lady Cardinals. Last season in San Antonio, Kresevic and Ramsey each found the net in a 2-0 SLU victory.
ACU, which plays at Nicholls on Friday, has just one win on the season, but has faced a very challenging non-conference slate. Senior Lindsey Jones and sophomore Sophie Standifer share the team lead with two goals. Juniors Kelsey Dombrowski (2.12 GAA) and Sydney Newton (2.45 GAA) have split time in the net for the Wildcats. Despite a goal by then-sophomore
Bri Singh, the Lady Lions dropped last season's meeting, 2-1, to ACU.
Following this week's action, SLU will return to the road. Southeastern will be at Houston Baptist on Oct. 2 for a 7 p.m. match.
