NEW ORLEANS — The undefeated LSU soccer team will play a match away from Baton Rouge for the first time all season when they face Tulane on Friday at 7:00 p.m. at the Westfeldt Facility in New Orleans.
“We are coming off a tough stretch of games, playing five games in 10 days and having tournaments on back-to-back weekends,” said LSU head coach George Fotopoulos. “I think we have gotten our rest and are now ready to play against a tough team from within our home state.”
The Tigers (5-0) are off to their best start in the program’s history and will face the Green Wave for the first time since the 2000 season. Tulane owns a 3-2 all-time mark versus LSU, but the Tigers won the last meeting held in Baton Rouge by a count of 2-1 on Oct. 25, 2000.
LSU is coming off a 2-0 win over Loyola (Md.), on Sept. 7, the Tigers’ fourth-consecutive shutout this season and have only allowed one team to score this season. LSU has outscored their opponents 26-1 this season and carry a 13-game winning streak against non-conference teams into the contest.
The Tigers are 31-4-1 against non-conference competition under Fotopoulos and have never lost to an in-state school, going 15-0-1 since Fotopoulos’ arrival prior to the 2000 season.
Freshman forward Stacy Bishop enters Friday’s match with a team-leading nine goals scored, which also puts her first in the Southeastern Conference. Bishop, a native of Land O’Lakes, Fla., set a school record earlier this season with five goals against Jackson State. Junior forward Artie Brown has tallied five goals while freshmen Michelle De Cespedes and Joleen Phillips have scored four apiece.
Seniors Rachel Cohen and Stephanie Keating can each tie former teammate Ashley Mitnick for the career record in assists on Friday. Each player currently has 18, one shy of Mitnick’s record of 19.
Tulane enters the contest 2-2 on the season and is coming off a 1-0 loss to Old Dominion in the Summit Hospitality Invitational last weekend.
LSU will next face the nationally ranked Texas Longhorns on Sept. 14 at 7:30 p.m. in Austin, Texas, marking the Tigers’ first meeting with Texas since the 2001 season.