Southland Conference

LAKE CHARLES, La. - Using the same formula they used to win the Southland Conference regular season championship, the Texas State women's soccer team captured the 2008 Southland Tournament championship with a 2-1 victory over McNeese State Sunday afternoon at the Ward 3 Complex.

"Overall this is a great team win," Texas State head coach Kat Conner said. "McNeese State was a good opponent and they gave us a run. But, we had a strong defense, and offensively, we handled the ball well enough for the overall victory."

In a matchup between the top two seeded teams in the tournament, the Bobcats took an early 1-0 lead when Rikki Padia scored six minutes into the match on an assist from Kelsey Bernard.

The score remained that way until the 40th minute when McNeese State freshman Jordan Picou entered the game and scored her first career goal to make the score 1-1. Kamryn Koch was credited with her seventh assist of the season to tie a McNeese State single-season record.

Texas State regained a 2-1 lead when Lauren Lewis, the tournament MVP, scored the game-winning goal in the 54th minute on a header. It was the fifth goal this season for Lewis and fourth game-winning shot this year.

McNeese State had two opportunities to tie the score in the final minutes, but both shots were wide. The first shot was by Ja'Nae Powell in the 83rd minute and the final shot by Koch came with 52 seconds left.

With the win, Texas State won its fourth Southland Conference Tournament championship and improves its overall record to 13-3-4. In addition to Lewis being named the tournament’s most valuable player, goal keeper Mandi Mawyer earned All-Tournament team honors after recording five saves in the championship game and ended the tournament allowing just one goal and registering eight saves in two games overall.

Jessica Elting, Christina Racanelli and Anna Fagan also earned all-tournament honors after piloting Texas State's strong defensive play. Texas State earns the Southland's automatic bid to the NCAA Soccer Tournament and will now await the announcement of the NCAA bracket Monday night at 7 p.m. on ESPNews.