BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team blanked the Ole Miss Lady Rebels on Friday, 3-0, in a crucial Southeastern Conference battle here at the LSU Soccer Complex. In the win, the Tigers’ Ashley Mitnick tied the all-time assist record by earning her 14th-career assist.
“I’m pleased with how the whole team played out there tonight,” said LSU head coach George Fotopoulos. “This was a great team effort and everyone contributed to the win. I was especially pleased with the way that Bonnie Otillio performed. When she’s on her game, we are hard to beat.”
With the three-goal margin, LSU earned its biggest goal margin in an SEC game since beating Arkansas, 4-0, on Oct. 25, 1998, in Baton Rouge.
Otillio, the Tigers’ all-time leader in career shutouts, earned her third shutout of the season and the 12th of her illustrious career. The junior goalkeeper pulled in six saves on Friday and improved her total to 29 on the season.
With the vital Western Division win, the LSU soccer team notched its first SEC win of the 2001 campaign and owns a 1-1 mark in the conference. The Tigers improved to an overall record of 6-2-1 on the season and are in the midst of a five-game unbeaten streak. Ole Miss dropped to 5-5-1 on the season and fell to an SEC record of 0-1.
The Lady Rebels’ loss snapped a four-match undefeated streak as Ole Miss heads to Arkansas for another Western Division contest on Sunday. Arkansas dropped Mississippi State, 4-1, on Friday in Fayetteville, Ark.
“We had a different team show up tonight,” Fotopoulos said. “This is the team that I thought we had all season long, but they haven’t been playing like it. We looked good tonight and I think it was due to the atmosphere surrounding the Florida game and the great fan support that we have.”
At the 19:22 mark in the first half, LSU freshman Stacie McDougall headed a Mitnick corner kick past Ole Miss’ Melinda Smith to give the Tigers an early 1-0 lead. On the play, McDougall recorded her first goal of the season and Mitnick tied former LSU soccer great Michelle McKinney’s all-time assist record of 14. In the second half of play, the Tiger freshmen tacked on two more goals against the Ole Miss defense.
Danielle Keath notched her second goal of the season on a header off of a beautiful crossing pass from Rachel Cohen.
Artie Brown put the contest out of reach with an unassisted goal at the 75:18 mark in the game. Brown leads the team with five goals and owns a team-high 12 points. Earlier in the season, she earned a hat trick against McNeese State.
“The freshman did an awesome job for us tonight,” said Fotopoulos. “They are all very talented and they did a great job of stepping up for us tonight. I think that Artie’s (Brown) goal really did a good job of closing it out for us tonight.
The LSU soccer team looks to begin SEC Western Division play on Sunday, as the Tigers host the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs at 1 p.m. at the LSU Soccer Complex.