GAME NOTES: Nicholls State
10/25/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Oct. 25, 2012
Week 11 Game Notes (Nicholls State)
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Ladyjacks will look to complete their second consecutive perfect conference season on Friday when they travel to Thibodaux, La. for a match against Nicholls State (5-12-0, 0-7-0) at 4 p.m.
Last Time Out: The Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks soccer team clinched their seventh Southland Conference title in school history with a hard-earned 3-1 victory over the Lamar Lady Cardinals on Senior Day Sunday afternoon at the SFA Soccer Field. SFA (14-3-0, 7-0-0) won their second consecutive regular season title, marking the third time in school history that the Ladyjacks have won back-to-back SLC titles (1997-98 and 2004-05).
Nicholls State Series History/Scouting Report: SFA leads the all-time series against rival Nicholls St. with a 19-1-2 record (.904), including a 3-0 victory over the Colonels last season. Nicholls enters play Friday having lost seven consecutive games, six of which have been one-goal losses. Freshman forward Spencer Valdespino leads the team in goals (5), assists (4), points (14) and shots (72). Despite a 5-12 overall record, Nicholls State has only been outscored 30-27 on the season.
Southland Conference Champs: For a second straight season and the seventh time overall in SFA history, the Ladyjacks won the Southland Conference regular season title with their 3-1 win over Lamar last week. The Ladyjacks have now won 18 consecutive regular season conference games dating back to 2010, the longest streak in SLC history. In Tony Amato's three years at SFA the Ladyjacks are now 21-2-1 in conference play in the regular season.
Ladyjacks In The Polls: One week after coming in at a school-record position of No. 45 in the RPI Rankings, the Ladyjacks moved up to No. 39 this week to set a new school-record. SFA also moved up a spot in the NSCAA Central Regional rankings from No. 8 to No. 7. The Ladyjacks also come in at No. 47 in the TopDrawerSoccer.com Top-64 national rankings.
Most Shutouts In The Nation: Despite allowing a penalty kick goal against Lamar on Sunday, the Ladyjacks did notch their school-record tying 13th shutout of the season against Sam Houston State. The 13 shutouts are tied with Florida State and Marquette for the most in the nation. SFA is also second in the country in shutout percentage (0.765). Junior goalkeeper Lacey Lee is No. 1 in the nation in Goals-Against Average (0.293).
Louw Becomes All-Time SFA Points Leader: With an assist in the 38th minute against Sam Houston State, senior midfielder Kylie Louw became the all-time leader in SFA history with her 92nd career point. Louw surpassed the previous mark held by Amanda Alders (91 points). Louw went on to add three more points on Sunday against Lamar with a goal and an assist and now has 95 career points.
Louw A National Leader: With two more assists this past weekend, Kylie Louw moved to No. 1 in the nation in total assists (12), tied with William and Mary's Cortlyn Bristol and Dayton's Colleen Williams. Louw is also tied with Williams for No. 1 in the country in assists per game (0.75). Louw needs just one more assist to tie her single-season assists record she set last year with 13.
One Win From History: SFA, 14 victories, can tie a school record on Friday for the most wins in a single season (15). The Ladyjacks will be shooting to match the 2011 and 2003 squads, each of which won 15 games.
Home Is Where The Wins Are: The Ladyjacks have now won 22 straight home contests dating back to 2009 with their last loss coming against UTEP on Sept. 3, 2010 (2-1 OT). Even more impressive the Ladyjacks have not lost a Southland Conference home match since Oct. 11, 2009.
Nine Wins: With their win over Oral Roberts on 9/30/12, SFA clinched yet another season with at least nine wins and another winning season. It marked the 10th consecutive season for the Ladyjacks to pick up at least nine victories and was the program's ninth straight winning season. The last time an SFA squad failed to reach the nine-win plateau was 2002, also the last time the Ladyjacks posted a losing season (7-9-4).
Title Town: The SFA women's soccer program has brought an unprecedented seven Southland Conference regular-season championships back to Nacogdoches. That total is nearly half of the 15 possible regular-season titles in SLC Soccer history.
-SFA-
