BATON ROUGE — In the last regular season home match at the LSU Soccer Complex, the LSU soccer team pulled together for a late two goal rally to defeat in-state rival Tulane 2-1 on Wednesday night.
“This was an emotional night for us,” said LSU head coach George Fotopoulos. ? “It was senior night and we are just coming off a win over Vanderbilt. ? We caught our breaks tonight.? We were out played throughout most of the game, but in the last 10 minutes we stepped up to out play them.? People always talk about our fitness, and I think that showed in the last 10 minutes of the match. ? Championship teams always find a way to win, and we did just that tonight.”
LSU improves to 15-5 for the season, a Tiger record for wins. Tulane falls to 8-9. ? LSU is now 5-0 against Louisiana teams for the season.
Sophomore Kara Dean scored the game winning goal late in the 83rd minute on a shot from eight yards out off an assist by freshman Rachel Cohen.? Dean leads the Tiger team with 15 goals this season.
Tulane’s Colleen Lake got the scoring started in the 58th minute of play with a header to the net off a corner kick assist from Jaclyn Benjamin to give the Wave the 1-0 lead.
The Tigers’ Melissa Shelton put LSU back into the game with a goal off a cross assist from Cohen in the 81st minute.? Shelton now has five goals for the season.? Cohen is second on the team with six assists.
The Wave outshot the Tigers 12-10 for the evening.? Tiger goalie Bonnie Otillio had six saves, and Jaclyn Urso had one for Tulane.
Being the last home game of the season, the Tigers honored six very special seniors tonight:? defender Sarah Gilbert, forward Somalia Lindsay, midfielder Wendy Gutierrez, forward Caroline Ellender, goalie Bryna Warnock and manager Melissa Barbay.
The game between LSU and Tulane will be televised on Baton Rouge Channel 11 Thursday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 7 p.m.
The Tigers look next to the Southeastern Conference tournament beginning November 2. ? LSU made it to the Tournament after posting a 5-4 SEC record this season and has not been to the tournament since 1998.? The Tigers’ seeding will be determined Friday in a final match between Tennessee and Georgia.