Lamar sports information
BEAUMONT — The Lamar women’s soccer team started its conference tournament title defense with a 3-2 victory over Southeastern Louisiana in the Southland Conference Women’s Soccer Tournament Quarterfinals on Wednesday evening.

“It felt really good getting the win tonight, it’s tournament time, the girls were really prepared for it,” head coach Steve Holeman said. “We felt we had a good first half, with the two-goal lead and that lead is tricky. The next goal is huge, and we know SLU was very good on set pieces and they battled back and once they tied the game we kept our composure moved the ball well and got a lot of chances and got the game-winner.”

Playing in the last game of the day, the Cards (12-5-2), who are looking at defending last years’ conference tournament championship, scored in the 26th minute of the match. Anna Loftus looked to be dribbling past a SLU defender, turned at the top of the box and fired a shot that found the back of the net putting the Cards ahead 1-0.

Lamar doubled its lead 5 minutes later when the Lions had a failed clearance that was deflected into the back of the net for a Cardinals goal, giving LU a 2-0 lead. The Cardinals took the 2-0 lead into halftime.

Coming out of halftime, the Lions scored its first goal of the game cutting the Cardinals lead in half. In the 50th minute of the match, Tilly Hallas-Potts sent a free kick to the back post and Christina Cutura scored the goal putting the Cardinals lead down to one, 2-1.

The Lions found a way to tie the game 5 minutes later. This time Lamar found itself on the wrong end of an own goal. This tied the game at 2-2.

The game-winning goal was scored in the 67th minute of the match. The Cardinals’ Amelia Fullmer dribbled down and brought the ball into the box. She crossed the ball and found Nederland’s Madison Ledet, who flicked the ball past the Lion goalie putting the Cards ahead 3-2.

Southeastern Louisiana had one shot to tie the game. In the 85th minute of the game, Brogan Bernadas sent a shot on goal and Sandra Nygard recorded the save. The Cards came away with a 3-2 victory.

With the win, Big Red advances to the Southland Conference Tournament Semifinals. The Cards will take on seventh seed Stephen F. Austin on Friday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. at the LU Soccer Complex.