Facing the adversity of being down a couple of players, the Lady Bears still fought hard during Friday's home non-conference match against Pearl River. But despite their efforts, Southwest came up short, falling 1-0. The Lady Bears were without Hannah Case and Makenna Williams. 
 
Despite the outcome on paper, head coach Nicole Daigle Cooper walked away from the match feeling good about her girls' performance. 
 
"Honestly, we played in a new formation today and we made some adjustments, but honestly, I'm very, very happy with our performance. We just need to finish in the attacking third," Cooper said. "We had a ton of chances. They beat us 3-0 last year and are (currently) ranked No. 10 in the nation. All in all, I'm very happy with how that turned out."
 
Both the Lady Bears (1-2) and the Lady Wildcats showed very aggressive play early on as both teams were jockeying for position and trying to set the tone. Southwest goalkeeper Abigayle Green made big saves early on while on the other end of the pitch, multiple Lady Bears including Juliette Charriez Rivera tried to capitalize on early opportunities.
 
Pearl River broke the scoreless streak very late in the first half, scoring with :05 left taking the advantage into the intermission.
 
In the second half, the Lady Bears found success moving the ball, but were unable to capitalize.
 
After the match, Cooper praised sophomore defender Jennifer Neal as she was tasked with defending one of Pearl River's top players.
 
"Jenn had a really big task in this game, she was marked up on one of their best players who has scored a lot of goals for them this year," Cooper said. "We gave Jenn a set of instructions and she nailed every single one of them."
 
For her efforts, Neal was awarded the player of the game, voted on by the Southwest coaches.
 
The Lady Bears will be back in action Tuesday at 5 p.m. with a road match against Mississippi Gulf Coast.