BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team’s five-game unbeaten streak was snapped on Sunday as the Tigers fell to the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs at home in the LSU Soccer Complex, 2-0.
‘I knew that they would be tough,’ said LSU head coach George Fotopoulos. ‘They are one of the best teams in our conference and we were lucky to hold them to only two goals today. They outplayed us in every facet of the game and we really didn’t play our best soccer.’
Mississippi State recorded its first-ever victory in Baton Rouge and narrowed the gap in the all-time series to 2-5. The Lady Bulldogs defeated LSU for the first time since 1997 and broke the Tigers’ three game winning streak in the rivalry.
LSU dropped to an overall record of 6-3-1 on the season and fell to a 1-2 mark versus Southeastern Conference opponents. The Tigers own a 5-2 record in the LSU Soccer Complex and the team’s pair of losses were at the hands of conference rivals. LSU fell to 16th-ranked Florida, 3-0, earlier in the season.
With the win, Mississippi State improved to an overall record of 8-4 on the season and an even 1-1 mark in the SEC. The Lady Bulldogs’ eighth win of the year already equals their final win total from the 2000 campaign. Mississippi State ended last season with an 8-11-1 record.
‘I think that Mississippi State was definitely the better team on the field today,’ Fotopoulos said. ‘It’s not that we played all that bad, it’s just that Mississippi State is that good. They deserved to win, and honestly, they probably could have won by more.’
The Tigers were held scoreless for only the fourth time in two seasons on Sunday. LSU was shutout by Florida (3-0) this season and both Kentucky (2-0) and Oklahoma State (2-0) in 2000.
Mississippi State’s Amy Van Zandt scored the game-winning goal at the 19:02 mark in the contest on a perfectly-placed 20-yard shot into the top-left corner of the net. On the play, Zandt notched her eighth goal of the season and freshman Ngum Suh was awarded the assist.
Zandt also played a major role in the Lady Bulldogs’ second goal of the match. The Mississippi State freshman from Grapevine, Texas, earned her third point of Sunday’s Western Division battle by assisting on a Jessi Moore goal. Moore snaked a shot in the left corner of the net with 4:26 remaining in the game.
The LSU soccer team will next be in action on Wednesday, Oct. 10, as the Tigers head to Natchitoches, La., for an in-state war with the Northwestern Demons.