BATON ROUGE- Coming in on a three-game winning streak, the LSU soccer team played flat Sunday afternoon, losing to in-state rival McNeese 2-1 at the LSU Soccer Complex.
McNeese (4-2-1) got first half goals from Nicci Delfatti and Brenna Abbitt to build a 2-0 halftime lead the Tigers (4-4) never could recover from.
“It’s disappointing because I think we had an opportunity to win two games this weekend and we won Friday night but did not play our best and today we came out flat,” said LSU head coach Greg Boggs. “Right now we need to find 11 people willing to step it up a level and we’re not there yet.”
Delfatti got the Cowgirls on the board in the eighth minute, catching the Tigers off guard. After taking a feed from Abbit, Delfatti turned to her right and fired past Tiger goalkeeper Bonnie Otillio from 20 yards out, beating her to the lower right corner of the net.
McNeese controlled the tempo of the first half and outshot the Tigers over the first 45 minutes by an 8-4 count.
In the 31st minute Abbitt made it a 2-0 game, catching the Tigers off balance by picking up a loose ball 30 yards out and dribbling in and beating Otillio from 15 yards out.
LSU came out of the locker room for the second half on fire and took over control of play. In the 50th minute Laura Prichard capped a mad scramble in front of the net off a corner kick, tapping a loose ball into the left corner of the net for her first goal of the season to cut the Cowgirl lead in half.
Despite outshooting the Cowgirls 8-5 in the second half, the Tigers could draw no closer.
The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for LSU, its longest run since 1996. LSU returns to action on Wednesday when the Tigers travel to New Orleans for a match with Tulane before hitting the road for SEC matches with defending national champion Florida and South Carolina next weekend.