THIBODAUX, La. – The Nicholls State University women's soccer team was aggressive offensively from the start, but an early first period goal by the Southeastern Louisiana Lady Lions haunted the Colonels for the rest of the match falling 1-0 Friday afternoon in Thibodaux.

With the loss the Colonels fall to 5-9 on the season and 0-4 in Southland Conference play.

For the third straight match the Colonels gave up a goal in the first period, as in the eighth minute Southeastern La.'s Maiya Cooper scored her tenth goal of the season to give the Lions a 1-0 lead on an open net goal.

Nicholls fired off 18 shots in the match and had 11 shots on goal to Southeastern Louisiana's (8-6-1, 2-2-1) eight and five. Spencer Valdespino led all players with six shots and four shots on goal in the match, followed by Jess Coates and Alexandra Marino's three shots each.

Amanda Boylson (1-7) had three saves in the match and has allowed just one goal in all three conference matches she's started. For the visitors, Lacey Bockhaus had much more to fend off as she had 11 stops on the afternoon as the Colonels peppered the Lady Lion goalie from start to finish.

The Colonels had a bevy of opportunities to try and net the equalizer in the first period, as the team had 11 of their 18 shots come in the opening half. In that period alone Nicholls also had six of their seven corner kicks, as SLU only had three in the entire 90 minutes.

Bockhaus had to stop nine of the Colonels' 11 shots on goal in the first half, needing only two saves in the final period of play. Southeastern Louisiana had a few opportunities to score in the second period, as Nicholls got two saves from Boylson and a team save to prevent another goal toward the end of the match.

Nicholls will return to the pitch on Sunday, hosting the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles at 1 p.m. at the Nicholls Soccer Complex.

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