KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The LSU Soccer team fell short in overtime against No. 7 Tennessee Sunday at the Tennessee Soccer Complex, 2-1.
“Tennessee is a great team and they did well battling and it was a great match all together,” said LSU co-head coach Danielle Fotopoulos.” We just didn’t execute when we had our chances and they tend to do that a little bit more. I am very proud of our defensive effort as a team, but we need to execute more offensively.”
With the loss, LSU (6-7-1, 1-4-1 SEC) is still winless against Tennessee (9-2-2, 6-0-0 SEC) all-time. Tennessee would out shoot LSU 15-6 and would take 15 corners to five for LSU.
Tennessee would score first in the 45th minute off of a set play on a free kick off of an LSU foul. Ali Christoph sent the free kick into the box and Keeley Dowling headed it down to Genna Gorman who knocked the ball past Tiger goalkeeper Valerie Vogler.
The Volunteers would take a 1-0 lead going into the half as there were three total shots in the first half, all taken by Tennessee.
“We fought hard and battle hard and we played better in the second half, but the last 30 seconds of the first half was disappointing,” said Fotopoulos. “We need to execute winning the second balls and we did that better in the second half, and I think that is why we had more success.”
LSU would get on the board in the second half when senior Artie Brown would score off of a pass from Julie Neumann. With the goal Brown now has 34 career goals and is only two goals from tying the all-time record of 36 held by Jackie Cooper.
Late in the second half sophomore Stacy Bishop headed a ball on the goal that looked like it was going in, but the Tennessee keeper made an excellent save to keep the score tied. The second half would end in a tie 1-1.
Tennessee would get a golden goal late in the first overtime period when Kayla Lockaby crossed the ball to Gorman who one touched the ball into the goal past Vogler.
The overtime was good for our team,” said Fotopoulos. It builds good character fur our team and we seem to be taking a lot of teams into overtime and we are just going to get ready for next week, and try to bring that fight and fire.”
The 2-1 loss is the first LSU-Tennessee game to be decided by one goal.
The Tigers will be back in action next Friday as they play Alabama at the LSU Soccer Complex at 7 p.m. CST. LSU will take on Auburn on Sunday, Oct. 17 at 2 p.m.
Tennessee (9-2-2, 6-0-0 SEC) defeated LSU (6-7-1, 1-4-1 SEC), 2-1 (OT)
UT 1 0 1-2
LSU 0 1 0-1
Scoring: Tennessee, Gorman (4) (assist Dowling, Christoph) 44:36, Gorman (5) (assist Lockaby) 99:39 LSU, Brown (8) (assist Neumann) 57:07
Yellow Cards: LSU, Christine Haman (1) 44:33
Tennessee, Team (1) 62:22, Sue Flamini (1) 97:04
Attendance: 569