Lady Colonels rain down for four goals on Texas Southern for first win of the season

In an ironic twist, it rained goals for the Nicholls soccer team on Sunday afternoon at the Thibodaux Regional Sports Complex.

After a weather delay of almost two hours, the Lady Colonels exploded for four goals in a 4-1 win over Texas Southern.

The weather may or may not have played a factor in the goals or the victory, but the win, no matter the fashion, suits Nicholls midfielder Lauren Andre just fine.

“Whatever helps,” said Andre. “It kind of cooled it off a little bit. If that’s what it takes, we’ll take it.”

Regardless of the weather, the Lady Colonels were ready to play against Texas Southern, according to third-year Nicholls coach Robert Podeyn.

“They came with a lot of energy today and they felt like they needed to kind of show themselves to play for each other that they could kind of win this,” Podeyn said.

Prior to the win over Texas Southern, the Lady Colonels had managed a single goal through their first five games of the season in starting 0-5 on the year.

Andre, who scored twice for Nicholls against the Lady Tigers, came up with the first goal against TSU at the 23:52 mark of the first half off an assist from Brooke Cox.

“When we get into the attack, that was our main thing coming up this week was when we get up, we all have to get to the box and create opportunities and that’s what we did. As midfielders, we got up the box like we’re supposed to and it paid off for us,” explained Andre.

“She’s got an amazing foot and we are kind of asking her to be that threat to kind of help our forwards and she was today,” Podeyn said of Andre.

Approximately two minutes later, Kaitlyn Poirrier scored her first goal of the season for Nicholls and a 2-0 lead.

Andre extended the lead to 3-0 on a free kick before Rayal Henderson scored for TSU as Nicholls took a two-goal lead at halftime.

“Coach just put his trust in me and said go for it. I just went for it,” Andre said of the free-kick goal.

The only other score came early in the second half on a penalty kick by Kinga Koronkiewicz as the 4-1 victory lifted Nicholls to 1-5 on the year. Nicholls won a total of two games over the entire 2022 season.

The 3-1 edge was the first halftime lead for the Lady Colonels all season.

“The big thing is that we couldn’t have a letdown. It was only a two-goal lead. They were going to come out and try and press to start and we had to get back to our game plan and force them in their half (of the field) to play out of pressure and try to make them make mistakes,” Podeyn said.

After being outscored 19-0 through four games, Andre scored the Lady Colonels’ first goal of the season for a 1-0 lead against Jackson State in an eventual 4-1 loss for Nicholls two days prior to the Texas Southern contest.

“It was definitely like a relief,” Andre said of the season’s first goal for Nicholls. “I think that’s what we needed so we could settle down and play. It wasn’t the result we wanted, but it was the step forward that we needed to come out and get the result today.

We knew we could have won the game on Friday. We just got a little too comfortable and slacked off. We knew today we could definitely win. If we start playing our game the right way, we could definitely beat (Texas Southern).”

Andre seemed a virtual scoring machine by Lady Colonel standards, recording three of the first five goals of the season for Nicholls.

“We’ve been practicing, and we were just waiting for it. Once we got one in the back of the net, there is no stopping us now,” said Andre.

The Lady Colonels demonstrated a much more aggressive style in their win over Texas Southern.

Nicholls took a season-high 20 shots and the four goals were the most scored by the Lady Colonels since 2019. The Lady Colonels outshot Texas Southern 20-11 and eight shots on goal compared to five for TSU.

“We always work on the philosophy that every ball, every play, every second, every game. That’s our play. Every 50-50 (ball), we are challenging. Every second ball we are challenging. We step and press. We take away options. I think we did the best we’ve done all season at that today,” said Podeyn.

Sophomore goalkeeper Megan Cook earned the second save of her career in the Lady Colonel victory.

The aggressive style, and the win, should bring the Lady Colonels a new level of confidence, according to their coach.

“I think it proves to them that they can do it. That kind of helps them with a little bit of confidence,” Podeyn said. “I think the next few games, we are playing opponents that are a little bit better than what we played today, but today’s opponent, Texas Southern, is still a decent team. I think it’s good because it kind of helps us in the confidence level to tell us, ‘hey, we can do this. We can play together, and we can be successful.’

“I think now we are going to start to see a little different approach, a different mentality when they step on the field.”

Andre echoed her coach’s sentiments.

“To start the season, we played some really good teams. I think playing them kind of made us better. We just needed to get this win so we know what we are capable of, and we can go into conference play knowing how we want to play and knowing that we can complete and beat those teams,” said Andre.