BEAUMONT, Texas - The Lamar University's soccer team closed out the regular season in style after honoring their six seniors and their fans, finishing the year with a 4-1 victory over Southeastern Louisiana. Their undefeated streak has reached a program 14 consecutive games dating all the way back to September 3rd, as LU finishes the regular season 14-2-2 overall and 9-0-1 in the Southland Conference.
On this night, LU would score all four goals in the first half. Two of those goals came from Cariel Ellis, who also picked up an assist in the match. Isela Ramirez and Kaisa Juvonen each tally a goal and an assist while Hollie Massey tallied two assists and Trinity Clark earned one assist. In her final home game, Nicole Panis would earn six saves against the Lions' offense.
Ellis would score twice on her first two shots within the first 5 minutes of the match. Her first goal came 27 seconds in as she struck the first shot of the match to the top left corner of the while the second one happened in the fifth minute. The Cardinals continued to apply pressure while not allowing a Lion shot until the 19th minute. In the 32nd minute, Ramirez would get a fortunate bounce off the crossbar into the goal for a 3-0 lead. Then, with 70 seconds to go in the half, Eva Karen delivered a free kick that was headed in by Juvonen for her first goal of the season.
The Cardinals started the second half with a 5-2 shots advantage. But the Lions would break the shutout in the 66th minute off a corner kick. Then, SLU had two more corner kick chances to get closer only to be met my the Cardinals' top-ranked defense. With the six seniors of Massey, Ellis, Arely Alaniz, Maddie Janolo, Kauany Sousa, and Grace Richard all getting their chances to play, the Cardinals cruised their way to the victory and also got to be presented with the SLC regular season championship trophy.
"What a tremendous night for our program," said head coach Nathan Kogut. "I am so proud of the way our team played tonight from the opening minute. We were able to honor our seniors on the best way and played a lot of kids quality minutes. To go unbeaten in conference is a testament to the hard working, high character young women in our program and they've earned every bit of this celebration. We will enjoy the weekend off and turn our eyes to the semifinal next week."
Now, LU turns their attention to the conference tournament, which will be held in Corpus Christi. Big Red will not get their tournament started until next Friday when they will host the winner of Northwestern State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
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