BEAUMONT, Texas – The Lamar University women's soccer program clinched a spot in the 2020 SLC Tournament with a convincing 3-0 win over Central Arkansas on Sunday afternoon.

"I thought it was a really good follow up to Friday night," said head coach Steve Holeman. "A lot of emotion went into Friday night with it being senior night. We knew it would not be significant if we did not follow up with a good performance on Sunday. I thought from start to finish we did some really good things. It was a good performance overall."

The Cardinals and Sugar Bears got into a highly defensive battle for the first 24 minutes of play before redshirt senior Esther Okoronkwo netted the first goal of the game in the 24^th minute to give the Big Red a 1-0 lead with a hefty amount of time to play. Central Arkansas and Lamar were even on shots in the first half at eight a piece.

Scoring in the second half favored the Cardinals as Okoronkwo tallied a penalty kick goal in the 46^th minute to push the Big Red lead to 2-0. In the 65^th minute, the Richmond, Texas native became the ninth player in SLC history to record three career hat trick when she tallied her third goal of the contest to give Lamar the 3-0 lead with just 15 minutes remaining. The Sugar Bears came close to finding the net, but could not find the grove as the Cardinals captured the 3-0 victory.

Central Arkansas outshot LU, 14-13, but shots on goal were even between the programs. Sophomore keeper Nicole Panis recorded six saves on the afternoon and tallied her fifth shutout of the year. Okoronkwo netted all three of LU's goals in the contest while Kaisa Juvonen and Madison Ledet each tallied one assist.

UP NEXT: The Cardinals will close out the 2020 regular season with a three-game road stand starting on Thursday, April 1 at Stephen F. Austin for a 7 p.m. kick off at the SFA Soccer Complex.