Oct. 4, 2009
Sam Houston State was the beneficiary of a Lamar own goal in the second half to give the Bearkats a 1-0 win at the Lamar Soccer Complex Sunday afternoon.
The score came after an initial shot attempt by Adriana Vasquez bounced off LU defender Kari Busch and then off goalkeeper Jennifer Gibbs before the misdirected ball rolled over the goal line at the 54:44 mark.
The loss put Lamar at 0-2 in the Southland Conference standings after the first weekend of league play. The Lady Cardinals are now 1-9-1 overall as they dropped their fifth one-goal game and third in the last four. Lamar also lost to Stephen F. Austin 2-1 in double overtime on Friday. SHSU is now 4-5-2 and 2-0 in SLC action.
"It was a very frustrating weekend," head coach Dewi Hardman said. "We played two very competitive teams and had a chance to do well in both games but failed to deliver on either."
Lamar played the first half with a steady 15 mile per hour wind at its back and managed to outshoot SHSU 11-2.
"You have to give Sam Houston State credit," Hardman added. "Playing against the wind in the first half, they played very hard and competed very hard. The goal we gave up was a very unfortunate one but that happens sometimes."
One of Lamar's best chances in the first half came in the 23rd minute when Lisa Hance put a shot on goal that SHSU keeper Jenny Pence made a full layout to register the save. Pence made eight of her 10 saves in the opening 45 minutes.
Just minutes before the Bearkats scored, Lamar's Jennifer Torry stole the ball just outside the SHSU penalty box but her shot sailed just over the top right corner of the goal.
LU's Lisa Topping had two of her game-high six shots in the final minutes - one on a free kick that was deflected by the SHSU four-person wall in the box and another in the 89th minute that Pence corralled.
Lamar outshot Sam Houston 18-10 for the contest with a 10-5 advantage in shots on goal.
Gibbs finished with four saves for Lamar.
The Lady Cards will hit the road for the first time after two weekends at home and face Texas State and UTSA next Friday and Sunday, respectively.
"Now we have a tough weekend ahead of us against two of the stronger teams in the stats with an 0-2 mark," Hardman said.
