The ACU soccer team was the first of many fall sports to begin its season at the Ragin’ Cajuns Stadium in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Louisiana snagged the victory, 2-0, with ACU senior goalkeeper Erin Smith recording four saves. Louisiana made 10 shot attempts with six shots on the goal of which only two ended in a score.

“We were excited to get out and play a team that’s not ourselves,” Smith said. “It let us see a different side of things we hadn’t seen in a while.”

It was ACU’s first matchup played since the Southland conference championship quarterfinals last season, losing to McNeese, 1-2.

“The unknown of going into a game like we had is that we typically have an exhibition to help figure out where we stand when we play against other teams,” head coach Casey Wilson said. “When we just go right into a game and haven’t played anybody else there are going to be question marks.”

The team attempted six shots with four of them resulting in a shot on goal. The team was left scoreless at the end of the 90 minutes. The Wildcats were shut out only twice last season, once against Texas Tech and Texas A&M.

“We have a large senior class to help leader the younger players,” Smith said. “The experience from the older players helps younger players have an easier transition from where they came from and helps to teach them our style of play.”

The team includes seven seniors playing with one redshirt senior. There are also seven juniors along with a redshirt junior on the team.

“We have an experienced offense, right now we are just trying to put all the pieces together as we head into Sunday’s game,” Wilson said.

The team faces off against SFA in Nacogdoches Sunday at 1 p.m. to continue its season-opening weekend.