NATCHITOCHES-- McNeese State's women's soccer season came to an end tonight at the Northwestern State Soccer Complex in a 5-1 loss to Stephen F. Austin at the Southland Conference Tournament. The Cowgirls end the season 8-10-2 overall and 4-4-0 in SLC play.

     "We knew coming in that this was going to be a difficult match, yet that was a tough one to take the way it finished.  You would think that when someone puts that number on you then you would want to give them attacking credit, but it was the work SFA did defensively that set the table for them. They did a very good job of crowding the ball and making it difficult for us to establish any sort of rhythm or attack.  Because we struggled to get the ball moving, we remained under pressure on the defensive end. SFA was clearly the much better team today and that is all I care to say about the game," said head coach Scooter Savoie.

Stephen F. Austin controlled the tempo of the game and maintained possession for most of the game. The Cowgirls were playing without junior midfielder Alana Clark. Clark is the Cowgirls' leading scorer this season with nine goals, 69 shots and 21 points. Clark suffered a season ending knee injury in last Sunday's game against Nicholls.

Stephen F. Austin took a 1-0 lead in the 22nd minute on a Laura Sadler goal off a cross from four yards out.

McNeese's Lindsey Zwahr nearly put the Cowgirls on the board early in the game but her header was saved by SFA's goalie, Courtney Bauder.

The Ladyjacks scored their second goal of the game four minutes into the second half. Megan Cash scored from the middle of the box off a Kim Kimmel assist. SFA extended their lead to 3-0 in the 60th minute on Kylie Louw's sixth goal of the season. Louw beat two Cowgirl defenders and scored from 12 yards out on the left side.

On the ensuing play, McNeese's Jana Barrow's shot missed wide left and another SFA save off of Macie Jones' shot in the 65th minute kept the Cowgirls scoreless. Jones attempted to score again, this time on a header in the 76ht minute but her shot was wide right.

SFA would score two more goals in less than two minutes of each other to take a 5-0 lead late in the game.

McNeese avoided the shutout on Jordan Picou's first goal of the season and second career goal. Picou scored on a rebound off a blocked shot taken by Jones. Picou's goal came off the deflection from 24 yards out in the 89th minute. 

McNeese has a promising future ahead of them with the youth on the team. After losing the scoring production and several four year starters last season, making this six team tournament field is a major accomplishment for the Cowgirls.

     "We can certainly take some positives from the season. We have a young team that put together a great run over the last three weeks of the season to qualify for the tournament. Hopefully, the lesson we learn from the this tournament experience is that it is a different game when you get here and it requires a different mentality than the regular season. We know we have the right people on the bus and we know this program will continue to work from the mindset that we are here to win championships.  I am certainly proud of our three seniors (Erica Shepard, Lauren Slater, Erin Leighton). Erica showed us some sticktoitiveness to have a great senior campaign. Lauren Slater taught us that impossible is nothing, simply by competing everyday. Erin Leighton showed us the definition of competitiveness greatness by breaking the McNeese career games played record."