BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team is set to host its final regular season contest of the 2001 season on Sunday, as the Tigers face the South Carolina Gamecocks at 1 p.m. at the LSU Soccer Complex.
LSU Athletics Director and former baseball coach, Skip Bertman, will be on hand for the vital Southeastern Conference contest and will take part in the halftime festivities. He will be the goalie in a contest that features several Tiger fans that will try and score a goal past him.
“South Carolina is a very good team and this is a game that we need to win,” said LSU head coach George Fotopoulos. “We have an extremely tough schedule ahead of us with six road games to end the season. So, we definitely need to get a win at home to put us in good shape for the SEC Tournament.”
The Tigers head into Sunday’s SEC battle with an overall record of 7-3-1 and with a 1-2 mark in conference play. LSU split its western division matches last weekend by defeating Ole Miss, 3-0, and falling to Mississippi State, 2-0. Earlier in the season, the Tigers were dropped by 13th-ranked Florida for their first SEC loss.
South Carolina comes into Baton Rouge with a 5-4-2 overall record and a hard-fought 0-3 conference mark. The Gamecocks are in the midst of a four game losing streak and haven’t scored a goal since a 4-0 win over Wofford on Sept. 23.
“They (South Carolina) lost some really tough matches lately,” Fotopoulos said. “They went up against four of the top teams in the nation and played them all very tough. I mean, they barely lost to Florida and Kentucky, who are both ranked in the top 20.”
In the Gamecocks’ three conference losses of the season, they fell in heartbreaking fashion to 16th-ranked Kentucky, Florida and Vanderbilt. South Carolina was only outscored in the three contests by a total score of 3-0.
The Gamecocks fell in each of the SEC games by a final count of 1-0.
LSU and South Carolina have only faced each other three times in the all-time series. In 1999, the Gamecocks blew by LSU at home in Columbia, S.C., 8-1, to take a 2-1 lead in the rivalry. The Tigers’ lone win of the series was in the opening contest between the two teams in 1995. LSU earned a 1-0 shutout on the road at the Eugene F. Stone III Stadium in the match-up.
With a win, the Tigers’ second-year head coach, Fotopoulos, will become LSU’s all-time winningest coach. He is currently tied for the lead with former head coach Miriam Hickey at 22 total wins. Hickey finished her tenure with a final record of 22-17-1, while Fotopoulos is currently at 22-9-1.
The LSU soccer team is ready to decide its own future on Sunday, as the Tigers host the South Carolina Gamecocks in a vital SEC duel at 1 p.m. Bertman, LSU’s Athletics Director will compete as a goalie against some lucky Tiger fans during halftime.
Admission to the LSU Soccer Complex is free for LSU students, $5 for adults and $3 for children under 12.