MONROE – The freshman duo of Olivia Gelpi and Karleen Bedre broke up a scoreless tie in the second half and the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Women’s Soccer team earned a 2-0 victory over ULM in a Sun Belt Conference match on Sunday at the ULM Soccer Complex.
Mackenzie Lee and Victoria Mendes combined on a shutout as Louisiana (7-5-3, 3-2-2 Sun Belt) earned its first win in Monroe since 2011 and moved into a third-place tie with Arkansas State in the Sun Belt standings.
Louisiana, which had five of its six shots on-goal in the first half, finally broke through in the 53rd minute when Gelpi took a pass from Skyla Sykes off a cross and scored past ULM goalkeeper Angel Hailey for her first career goal.
The Ragin’ Cajuns kept up their pressure and added an insurance goal in the 70th minute that began with a goal kick from Lee. Bedre took Lee’s boot that landed just past midfield and beat a ULM defender to the goal, where her shot got past Hailey into the left lower corner of the goal.
Louisiana, which defeated ULM (3-9-2, 0-6 Sun Belt) for the eighth time in the last 10 matches, outshot the Warhawks, 13-4, while placing eight shots on-goal. Gelpi and Bedre each had a pair of shots on-goal for the Ragin’ Cajuns with Una Einarsdottir, Alexis Arnoult, Alex Augustyn and Rachel Sutter each providing a scoring opportunity.
Lee recorded a pair of saves for Louisiana while moving into third-place on the Ragin’ Cajuns all-time list for minutes played by a goalkeeper (3,586).
Hailey recorded six saves to lead ULM with Khyjian Thomas and Camryn Ciaramella each attempting a shot on-goal for the Warhawks.
Louisiana will return to action on Friday when it wraps up its 2019 road schedule at Georgia State in a 6 p.m. CT.
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