BEAUMONT, Texas – Lamar University enters the Southland Conference tournament as the No. 1 seed and will start its tournament run against No. 4 UIW Thursday afternoon. The match kicks off at 3:30 p.m. and will be streamed on ESPN+. The game will take place at Lions Soccer Field in Commerce, Texas. The 2026 conference championship tournament is hosted by East Texas A&M.
PREVIOUSLY
The Cardinals (10-2-5, 7-1-2 SLC) secured the regular-season title with a 1-0 victory over McNeese in its regular-season finale.
Marissa Gross scored her league-leading 11th goal and sixth game-winner of the season off assists from
Kamdyn Jalayer and
Sofia Wilby.
UNBEATEN AT HOME
Lamar finished the regular season unbeaten at the LU Soccer Complex (6-0-2) for the first time since 2017. The Cardinals recorded seven shutouts and outscored the opposition 26-2, with Nicholls as the only team to score against them.
ALL-CONFERENCE HONOREES
Big Red had six players named to the All-Southland Conference teams. First-team honors went to forward
Marissa Gross, goalkeeper
Keely Thomas, midfielder
Sofia Wilby and defenders
Anneliese Switzer and
Riley Wilson. Fellow defender Lauryn Wilson was selected to the All-SLC second team.
FIVE MAJOR AWARD WINNERS
LU captured five SLC individual awards. Gross was named the SLC Player and Forward of the Year.
Keely Thomas earned goalkeeper of the year honors, while Wilby was selected as the conference's midfielder of the year. Head coach
Nathan Kogut was named SLC Coach of the Year for the third time in five seasons.
SLC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Cardinals are making their 11th tournament appearance all-time. In 18 games, LU is 11-8-1, which includes four conference titles, all as the No. 1 seed. Last season, Big Red hosted the conference tournament and reached the semifinals before falling to eventual tournament runner-up Stephen F. Austin, 2-0.
ALL-TIME AS NO. 1 SEED
This is LU's fifth time being the No. 1 seed and it holds a 9-0-1 record in 10 tournament matches. The Cardinals tied Northwestern State, 1-1, back in the 2023 SLC tournament semifinals, but advanced to the championship on penalty kicks.
ALL-TIME VS. UIW
Lamar is 8-0-6 all-time against the team from San Antonio. This season, Big Red pulled out a 1-0 win with Gross netting the game-winner on an assist by
Diem Sealy.
ABOUT UIW
UIW shut out No. 5 Nicholls, 4-0, in the first round Tuesday with three second-half goals. Goalkeeper Hannah Alexander collected seven saves to produce her seventh shutout of the season while the defense, led by SLC second-team members Hayden Kish and Montanna Matthews, held the Colonels to 12 shots.
UP NEXT
Should the Cardinals win Thursday, they will advance to Sunday's SLC Championship game and take on the winner of No. 3 Northwestern State and No. 2 Houston Christian. That match will kick off at 1 p.m. and be streamed on ESPN+.
