BEAUMONT, Texas — The Lamar University women’s soccer team got its preseason schedule underway on Wednesday evening when they hosted former Southland foe Houston Baptist in a friendly exhibition, capturing the win, 2-0, over the Huskies. The exhibition consisted of three 30-minute periods with 10-minute cooling periods to help the coaches better evaluate their programs.
“It was a really good test for us,” said head coach Steve Holeman. “because of our low numbers, this was the first time we went 11-on-11 and HBU put us under a lot of pressure. I thought they tested our back line and goalkeepers as they created a lot of opportunities. At the end of the day, we got our players some good playing time. It was a good training session for us. Now we recover and move forward.”
The Huskies came out firing on all cylinders to begin the game tallying 13 shots in the first period alone, but it went onto be the Cardinals who tallied the first score of the game in the second frame of the exhibition on a beautiful through pass by Christine Kitaru to freshman Isela Ramirez.
Lamar did not end the scoring there as just 10 minutes later, Kitaru found the back of the net on a through pass from junior Laura Linares. The third period saw both defenses pick back up their power as both teams got off multiple shot opportunities. The Cardinals finished the night with 13 shots while the Huskies tallied 19 shots.
Numerous Cardinals garnered their first collegiate experience including freshman Vivienne Carr tallied 30 minutes in goal for the Big Red and recorded one save. Nicole Panis started the game in goal for Lamar and finished the night with 60 minutes played and five saves.
UP NEXT: The Cardinals will close out preseason play on the road in Houston as they will travel to Rice to take on the Owls on Saturday, August 14th with a 6 p.m. kickoff