NATCHITOCHES, La. - Making their long-awaited return to the Southland Conference tournament, Lamar University's soccer team would edge out Houston Christian 1-0 in the semifinals. For the fourth time in program history, the Cardinals will play for the conference championship.

LU would manage to outshoot the Huskies 21-10, which included a 11-3 shots on goal advantage. Laura Linares would be credited with the winning goal in the 34th minute. Nicole Panis would make three saves in goal for Big Red.

The first half featured 15 combined shots between the two teams with LU putting up nine of them. It would be on their seventh shot that the Cardinals broke the shutout as Linares found the top right of the goal to give LU a 1-0 lead. HCU would have a chance to level the score three minutes later before Panis made the save as LU proceeded to halftime with the lead.

The Cardinals turned up the energy in the second half recording 12 of the 16 shots, but were unable to tack on more goals. Still, LU's defense would force four off-target shots by the Huskies as they would be able to secure the win and move into Sunday's championship.

"I am happy we get a chance to play for a title on Sunday," said head coach Nathan Kogut. "It's always tough to play a team again after we just played them, but our girls did what they had to do to get the win. I'm excited for this group and can't wait to see us play for another trophy."

The Cardinals will take on the winner of three-seed Texas A&M-Commerce and two seed host school Northwestern State on Sunday. Kickoff will be at 1:00 PM.

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