HAMMOND, La. – With the spring schedule completed, there is plenty of optimism for the Southeastern Louisiana women's soccer team going into the fall.
 
The Lady Lions, under head coach Chris McBride, showed great strides this spring recording five shutouts in eight matches building off their success from 2018. SLU finished their second season under McBride 7-7-4 overall and 4-4-3 in the Southland allowing just 19 goals in 18 matches.
 
SLU's backline is intact despite the loss of All-Southland selection Sofia Olsson. The Lady Lions return All-Southland selection Claire Huston, Tilly Hallas-Potts and Jada Ellis to anchor the defense. McBride wanted to use the spring as a chance to test the trio.
 
"We wanted to play some good teams this spring like LSU, Ole Miss and South Alabama and others" said McBride. "And those are some teams that are going to expose you in the backline and test you. But not just the defense, it was good to have the entire team get a chance against some top competition and for us to play some different systems and see what is going to best suit us without the pressure of a conference game." 
 
Southeastern returns a bevy of young talent at midfield led by All-Southland selection Megan Gordon which will help with the loss of senior Vanessa Arzaluz. The sophomore was second on the team in minutes play (1504) behind Hallas-Potts (1605). The Clophill, England native, leads the group of versatility including Jamie Raines, Mia Milton, Dalton Fish and Darby Gillette.
 
"It's a very versatile group," said McBride. "Because of the spring, we were able to move a lot of players around this spring like Mia, Dalton, Jamie and Darby all over the field and put them in different positions to give us more depth and be tactically flexible next year."
 
At forward, SLU will lose leading scorer Christina Cutura but will have several options to keep the ball rolling. Freshman Brogan Bernadas returns and was second on the team with four goals scored. But McBride attributed a lot of the offensive success last year to Amber Marinero who led the team with six assists
 
"Brogan did a great job of putting the ball in the back of the net," said McBride. "But sometimes to the bigger eye is what we miss and Amber made a lot of things happen including the assists. We really saw this spring, especially, how well she played and how vital Amber is to our success. So of course Brogan did a good job for us but there is a ton of depth at the position and a chance for a lot of different players to be successful."
 
The Lady Lions will have one of the top goalkeepers in the conference returning in Nadine Maher. The Dublin, Ireland native, had 97 saves last season which was second in the conference.
 
"Anytime your goalkeeper has that kind of season your backline is usually pretty successful," said McBride. "But ultimately we finished sixth in the conference so there were some areas we needed to improve on and playing the schedule this spring we did gave us that chance of finding out just who we really are. To find out what our strengths and weaknesses are."
 
With the spring in the books, the Lady Lions can now turn their attention toward the regular season, which begins in late August. The full schedule will be released at a later date.
 
SCORE ONE MORE CLUB/S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the women's soccer program are encouraged to join the Score One More Club.  Lion alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners. All membership fees and donations to Score One More Club are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern soccer program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
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