WEST POINT — Saturday night the Lady Bears took on Southeastern University and lost 5-2. Coming into the the match SEU had been ranked #20 in the nation in the preseason poll, but this did not deter the Lady Bears from exhibiting a great effort on the pitch. The 2016 Sun Conference's Newcomer of the year, Uchenna Kanu, supplied the greatest impact for the SEU's Women's squad by scoring twice and providing an assist as well. Considering Kanu scored four goals in just over a half of play in SEU's previous match, the Lady Bears fared better than other defenses by limiting her offensive contributions throughout the entire ninety minutes.
By the end of the first half the Lady Bears were down 2-0, but the Lady Bears came back in the second half with some highlights of their own. Less than a minute after SEU scored their fourth goal of the match, Freshman Jennifer McCall was able to score her first collegiate goal via an assist from Christina Charles in the 59th minute. SEU would quickly counter with another goal, but the drive and spirit of the Lady Bears continued. Resulting from an assist by Megan McCall, Susanna Peppers scored her second goal of the season in the 82nd minute.
Going into the contest Head Coach David McDowell knew that this would be a tough opponent, but he was still quite pleased by the effort and performance from his players. "Despite the scoreline, I felt we showed great character and discipline in sticking to the game plan," said McDowell. "We showed that as we continue to grow and improve that we have a lot of potential."
In a day and age where score lines are the determining factors of performance, it is refreshing to see a coaching staff look past the scoreboard by noticing potential in their team. There should be no doubt that the Lady Bears will bounce back from this game with the same, if not greater, pursuit of excellence in everything they do.
