Following a lightning storm that washed out what was looking to be a loss against UCLA, the Cougars will welcome the tamer Sam Houston State Bearkats to Robertson Stadium on Friday for their new season opener.
The Bearkats (0-2-0, 3 GS/9 GA) have a veteran-laden squad, but they are lacking defensively.
The Bearkat’s new goalkeeper Jenny Pence has been bombarded as Sam Houston State has been outshot 57 to 29 in its two matches.
Bearkat senior defender Tofi Chavez and coach Marcia Oliveira must rally the rest of the defensive corps if they don’t want to get blown out of Robertson on Friday.
The Bearkats were 3-15-0 last year, and if their results thus far are any indication, they haven’t improved much.
Following that, the Cougars will travel to Lafayette, LA to take on the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns (1-1-1, 5 GS/6 GA) on Sunday at the Cajun’s Track/Soccer facility.
The Ragin’ Cajuns already dropped the Bearkats in overtime at Huntsville, so they should be a more formidable opponent for the Cougars.
Last season the Cajuns opened up at Robertson Stadium and played the Cougars tight in a 3-2 OT loss, so they’ll be looking for revenge at home.
UL-Lafayette is coming off an 8-8-4 season and only lost two players in its rotation from last season.
Thus far, their leading scorer has been junior forward Callie Oliver, who has almost caught her point total from last year already with 5 in 3 games as opposed to 6 in 20 last season.
However, their most dangerous player is sophomore midfielder Courtney Hofland, who netted a team-high 15 points last year as a freshman.
Look for the Cougars to come out strong and get head coach Susan Bush her first victory on Friday night at Robertson, as the hapless Bearkats defense will not be able to contain Brittney Pfeiffer or Nikki Echeverria.
The Louisiana-Lafayette game will be more of a challenge for the Cougars to see how far along the team is, especially considering it’s a road game and they are traveling on short rest.
The Cajuns will play to win the possession battle and limit shots, but all the Cougars need is a few fortunate bounces to walk away from their opening weekend undefeated.
