Lady Colonels face final non-league foe before seeking turnaround with start of conference play

The Nicholls soccer team has one more non-conference match before beginning Southland play when the Lady Colonels travel to take on Southern University at 6 p.m. Friday in Baton Rouge.

“Southern’s actually done well against the Southland Conference teams this year. They beat Southeastern and they just tied McNeese,” said Nicholls soccer coach Robert Podeyn.

Like Southern, several other Southwestern Athletic Conference schools like Jackson State and Texas Southern, have squared off against a few Southland teams in the pre-conference matchups. The results might help in common-opponent comparisons in a normal season, but this is not a normal year for Nicholls, according to Podeyn.

“You can use it as a measuring stick,” the Nicholls coach said “I think a lot of times we normally would but being that we’re still young and still learning, I think our best soccer is in front of us.

“We’ve had some really good moments. Unfortunately, we’ve had a lot of growing pains. I think those growing pains have made it where the scores are a bit more lopsided when they really aren’t.”

Through their first eight matches, the Lady Colonels are 1-7 on the season. The lone win for Nicholls was a 4-1 victory over Texas Southern.

The Lady Colonels have managed a total of only six goals on the season. They have been shut out five times and have been outscored 38-6.

“I think once conference begins this week, we kind of focus on all these games leading up to conference are our training sessions,” Podeyn said. “We used those to learn. We used those to improve. We used those to kind of get better.

“We definitely improved, but we’re still trying to figure out how to play together. We’re still not there. It’s taking a little bit of time. I think once we begin conference play on Sunday, you will see a lot more stability, a lot more settled as we play.”

The Lady Colonels open SLC play Sunday afternoon at Houston Christian.

Hampering the cause of a very young Nicholls team is that the Lady Colonels have been hit hard by COVID.

“Right now, I’m down three players with COVID that were just diagnosed (on Monday),” said Podeyn. “Prior to that, I had three others that were down for the last week, one being Lauren Andre, who was out. No sooner than she becomes Player of the Week (in the conference) …she didn’t have COVID. She was sick. She tested twice negative, but she was systematic and everything. She was running a fever, everything. Lauren was out for the better part of a week.

“Both center backs tried to play on Sunday without telling me they were sick and then were diagnosed with COVID. One of my captains was just diagnosed with COVID. Prior to that, I had two other midfielders diagnosed with COVID.”

While the current strain of COVID has been on the increase, there hasn’t been the same reaction to the previous two waves since the populous has been through it before and there is now a vaccine, according to Podeyn.

“The first time around, there was a lot more uncertainty with a lot more fear about it,” the Nicholls coach said. “Most of the classes at that point were being taken online so we were doing more virtual learning. A lot of schools were still kind of shut. People were wearing masks, distancing, all of these things.

“Now, because everybody is mingling. It’s gotten to the point where it’s almost like the normal flu. We still have to deal with it.”

The Nicholls soccer team also must deal with COVID protocols.

“It’s still five days quarantine,” said Podeyn. “Then it’s two days to return, so it’s a week – and that’s a minimum.  Some kids, it’s hitting them harder than others where they don’t have the lung capacity to come back. Then it becomes more difficult, so a week could be two or two-and-a-half. That’s kind of hard to do in the middle of the season.”

It’s especially hard for a very young team featuring 24 freshmen and sophomores trying to compete and adapt while also trying to learn as they move through the schedule.

“Just when you want to start working on things, you’ve got to mix it up all over again,” Podeyn said. “That’s good and bad because it’s given a lot of other players that maybe wouldn’t have gotten as much time, it’s given those players a chance to maybe get some experience that they maybe wouldn’t have gotten at this stage.

“The bad is that we haven’t gotten the results we wanted. I don’t think that’s indicative of the team we are. I think this team, by far, is more talented than any I’ve had since I’ve been here. They are young. They are still learning, but I think our best soccer is in front of us, and I think a lot of teams will underestimate us to where we are going to be competing later in the season when it will still be meaningful.”

The meaningful portion of the schedule begins when the Lady Colonels take on Houston Christian, a team that figures to be among the upper half of SLC teams.

“Houston Christian usually is a very well-organized team,” said Podeyn. “They usually are very disciplined. They won’t be one of the top two teams in the conference, but they probably will be competing for that three, four, five spot.

“That first couple of teams are separated from everybody else. They are just better. You’ve got Lamar, and then you’ve got Texas A&M-Commerce. Those two teams are one-two. After that, there is a drop with three through what I consider six. That three through six would be, I think, Houston Christian is toward the top of that group. You’ve got Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Northwestern, it’s hard to tell what they are going to be like, but Northwestern, Southeastern, that’s kind of the three, four, five, six group. Then you get into that seven, eight, nine group, which we’ve been at the bottom of, which would be Incarnate Word, McNeese, and us.”

The Lady Colonels have been at the bottom of the SLC standings for years. This may be the year, Podeyn said, that the team rises a few rungs up the ladder.

“Even though we are young, I think we are talented enough,” said Podeyn. “Can we be organized and disciplined enough, and can we stay healthy enough to get us into that three through six group, because I think we can It just depends on that learning curve. Once we get to the point where we have the consistency on the field, we develop that comfort for each other, and trust as far as how we play together, then I think we can compete for that three through six.

“Until we get to that point, we’re still learning.”