BEAUMONT, Texas - Returning home with Southland Conference tournament seeding on the line and seniors to celebrate, Lamar University's soccer team will host its final two home games of the regular season this weekend. The Cards will face Houston Baptist University on Friday and Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi on Sunday in the LU Soccer Complex.

THE LAST TIME OUT - UIW AND ABILENE CHRISTIAN

UIW
Lamar University sophomore Lucy Ashworth netted a goal with 48 seconds remaining to hand Big Red a thrilling victory over Incarnate Word Friday evening in San Antonio. The goal – Ashworth's fifth of the season – gave the Cardinals a 1-0 victory to improve to 9-3-2 (.714) overall and 5-0-2 in Southland Conference play.
 
"UIW is better than their record would indicate," said LU head coach Steve Holeman. "They made it difficult for us to get many good opportunities, but we had some quality chances that got away from us. In the first half, I didn't feel like we were very composed in the final third."

ACU
Abilene Christian scored three goals in the first 24 minutes of the game and held on in the second half to defeat Lamar University, 3-0, Sunday afternoon at Elmer Gray Stadium. The setback ended a 19-game unbeaten streak for the Cardinals dating back to last season.
 
The contest which was originally scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. had to be moved to a noon start due to the threat of weather in the Abilene area.
 
The Wildcats ended the day with 17-10 advantage in shots taken, including eight shots on goal. Big Red put themselves in good position to get several looks at the net with an 8-3 advantage in corner kicks but was unable to convert.
 
"Abilene was extremely efficient to start the game today," said LU head coach Steve Holeman. "They scored on three of their first four shots. We had a miscue on a corner kick on their first goal and their second goal came from a direct free kick where the ACU player struck the ball well, but I felt our position to defend the kick was a little off. We will have to go back to the film and take a look.
 
"Obviously, we're not happy with the outcome, but ACU is a very talented team and they did a good job limiting our chances. We know that we played a good team and that our effort was there, and as a coach you can walk away with that. They made it tough on us and they got the result," added Holeman.

THIS WEEK - HBU AND A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI

Lamar vs. Houston Baptist - Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. - Senior Night
HBU is 8-6-1 overall and 6-1-1 in the Southland this season with wins over Abilene Christian, Stephen F. Austin, Southeastern Louisiana, Nicholls, Incarnate Word, and Northwestern State, a tie against Sam Houston State, and a 3-1 loss to Central Arkansas.

Misty Jones has been the head of the HBU women's soccer program for 13 seasons, and holds a 118-105-26 record in that time. She's in her 17th total season as a head coach and owns a 164-135-27 career mark.

HBU enters the game averaging 1.40 goals a game while allowing 1.365 goals a game, a rather narrow margin. Impressively the Huskies have measured 1.40 assists a game, the third-best average in the conference.

Alanis Guevara leads the conference in goalie minutes played with 1384:47, and she averages 5.20 saves a game, the fifth-most in the league. Her six shutouts this season are the most by a single goalie in the league, though Lamar has seven shutouts combined between Sandra Nygard and Jocelyn Hanrath.

Sabriah Spencer is the leading scorer for HBU with five on the year and is tied with Autumn Wildung and Baylii Bieke for the team lead in assists with four apiece.

Lamar vs. A&M-Corpus Christi - Oct. 21 at 1 p.m.
The Islanders hold a 5-6-3 record this season that includes a 2-4-2 mark in league play. A&M-Corpus Christi has wins against Sam Houston State and at Nicholls, ties against SFA and at Abilene Christian, and losses at Southeastern, UIW, Central Arkansas, and Northwestern State.

Craig Shaw is in his second season as the head of the Islanders and has an 11-15-6 overall record and a 5-10-4 record in SLC competition. Shaw has been a head coach since 2007, when he lead Ottawa (Kan.) to an 8-10-2 record. He holds a 119-79-20 career record in 11 seasons.

The Islanders average 0.86 goals a game while allowing 1.015 goals a game, and rank seventh in the league in shots per game, averaging 13.79 attempts per contest.

Kyleigh Hall holds a 0.948 goals against average with a 0.833 save percentage and an average of five saves a game. She's played 949:50 in-goal.

Addison Urbanus, Mariah Ramon, Kayla Gove, and Abby Deakin each have two goals this season, and Kaitlyn Joy, Dana Curtis, Megan Dodd, and Reaghan Lang each have one score apiece.

UP NEXT

Lamar has just one regular season game left after HBU and A&M-Corpus Christi this weekend - at McNeese on Oct. 26. The Cards and Cowgirls will play in Lake Charles, La., at 7 p.m.