Louisiana's Alyssa Abbott prepares to strike the ball during an exhibition match against McNeese on Wednesday

LAFAYETTE — Alyssa Abbott scored a pair of goals and Hailly Waterhouse added an assist to lead the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Women’s Soccer team in its exhibition opener against I-10 rival McNeese on Wednesday, but a mad scramble in the box in the final half-minute of regulation resulted in an own goal and a 2-2 deadlock at the Home Bank Track/Soccer Facility.

Louisiana, which will officially open its first season under head coach Chris McBride on Aug. 18 against FIU, outshot McNeese, 9-5 with Abbott scoring in the 19th minute before giving the Ragin’ Cajuns a 2-1 lead with an unassisted goal in the 76th minute.

The Cowgirls tied the match with 28 seconds remaining after converting on their fourth corner kick of the match — all coming in the final period.

“It was a good first test for us against a team in McNeese,” McBride said. “They returned a lot of players from a team that reached the (Southland) conference finals last year and they played very physical. We were able to match their physicality and get a look at a lot of our newcomers in their first collegiate experience. They did some good things and we will look to build on this and get ready to start the season next week.”

McNeese scored in the 13th minute on Rachel Young’s goal off a crossing pass from Salma Elhaimer before Louisiana tied the match six minutes later on Abbott’s goal off a pass from Waterhouse.

Libby Harper and Reese Keller each split time in goal for Louisiana while McNeese’s Jackie Kelly and Briana O’Dell shared equal time in goal for the Cowgirls.

Louisiana will close out its exhibition season on Saturday when it hosts Southern University in a 7 p.m. contest.

Admission is free.