Louisiana ties school record for most wins in a season
JONESBORO, Ark. – The Sun Belt Conference’s first place Louisiana’s Lady Cajuns soccer team used two goals from its “Danish Duo” of Rose Clemensen and Lotte Rasmussen en route to a 2-0 victory over Arkansas State here Friday afternoon at Indian Soccer Park.
Freshman and fellow countrywoman Mette Olesen added an assist in the victory. With the win, Louisiana (6-5-2, 2-0-1 Sun Belt) remained undefeated in conference action and also tied a school record for most wins in a season.
The win is the Cajuns’ first over Arkansas State (4-10-0, 1-4-0 Sun Belt) in Jonesboro and their first victory in the series in three seasons. The Cajuns have now won back-to-back conference matches for the first time since 2002.
In the 37th minute, Rasmussen scored her fourth goal of the season off a penalty kick to give the Cajuns a 1-0 lead heading into halftime.
Thirty-four minutes later, Clemensen also scored her fourth goal of the season with a helper from Olesen to give UL Lafayette the resulting 2-0 advantage.
“We are getting better at figuring out ways to create opportunities for ourselves,” UL head coach Dave Poggi said. “They (Lotte, Rose and Mette) went on the stat sheet, but I think it is equally important who created those chances and how.
“Meredith Smith played well for us in the second half,” Poggi continued. “She was able to get us the ball in different situations to keep our attack going.”
The physical match was plagued by fouls and yellow cards. In all, there were 62 fouls called – 31 on each team – and seven yellow cards were issued, six in the first half. Clemensen, Smith and Kristina Nadolski were issued yellow cards for the Cajuns.
“Our bench play I think was key for us tonight,” Poggi added. “We got good minutes from Kelli (Good), Kerri (Luyties) and Lyndsey (Winters). I think the second half was better for us.
“Arkansas State wasn’t a very dangerous team in the second half, but they are a scrappy team that works really hard,” Poggi commented. “With Taunya (Geelhoed) and Sherryl (Owens) playing in back for us, we were able to keep the Indians in check. They are a very difficult team to play at home and I am very please with the outcome.”
Louisiana’s Lady Cajuns will travel to Little Rock, Ark., to face Arkansas-Little Rock (1-12, 0-5 Sun Belt) in a 1 p.m. match Sunday.
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