BEAUMONT, Texas – The inexperience of the Lamar University women's soccer team showed Friday night in a 3-0 loss to visiting San Jose State in the season opener for both teams.
 
The Cardinals started five sophomores and two freshmen Friday as LU dropped the season opener for the first time in three years. San Jose State got a bit of revenge after dropping its season opener to a visiting LU squad by a 1-0 count last season.
 
"This is something we have to learn from," LU coach Orlando Cervantes said after the loss. "We have to be mentally tougher. We can't play with fear. When something goes wrong we have to learn to fight back."
 
San Jose State got on the board at the 13:54 mark of the first half when Samantha Orodpour scored an unassisted goal after a scramble in front of LU goalkeeper Lauren Lovejoy, who was making her first career start.
 
"I thought we played a good first half," Cervantes said. "We stayed within our game plan and did some good things."
 
San Jose State boosted its lead to 2-0 just 4:24 into the second half when Darlene Rodriguez fired a shot past Lovejoy. That goal gave added momentum to the Spartans.
 
"The minute that second goal went in, we didn't fight back," Cervantes said. "We didn't counter attack. We let them take the game to us."
 
The Spartans added an insurance goal with 13:16 left remaining when Claire Berkley converted a corner kick off the foot of Carly McBeath.
 
"We did a bad job of defending there," Cervantes said. "That was a weak goal that we should not have allowed."
 
Lovejoy made 10 saves for LU. Zoe Makrigiannis made two saves over the first 80 minutes for San Jose State before giving way to Paige Simoneau as the duo shared the shutout.
 
LU was outshot 20-7 for the game. Mari Olastuen had two shots for the Cardinals.
 
LU doesn't have much time to regroup. The Cardinals hit the road Saturday afternoon to make the trek to Ruston, La., for a showdown with Louisiana Tech at 1 p.m. Sunday. The team will practice Saturday evening at Louisiana Tech.
 
"That will be another tough game for us," Cervantes said. "But we didn't schedule easy teams just to get wins. We scheduled teams that will help us get better. We just have to learn from this and show improvement."
 
Following Sunday's game at Louisiana Tech, the Cardinals return home for a pair of games next weekend. Texas Southern comes to town at 7 p.m. Aug. 28, while LSU-Alexandria visits the LU Soccer Complex at 5 p.m. Aug. 30.
 
For ticket information, call 409-880-1715, or click here.