BATON ROUGE — Senior Kate Ripple scored two goals in the second half to lead the LSU soccer team to its fourth-straight win as it defeated the McNeese State Cowgirls, 2-1, on Tuesday at the LSU Soccer Complex.
LSU improves to 4-2 on the season and 5-1 all-time versus McNeese State (2-5). This marks the Tigers’ longest winning streak since winning four straight to open the 2004 season.
“McNeese is a quality opponent who has a great chance to succeed in the Southland Conference,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “They were very organized and tough to break down. We kept possession, moved the ball and our movement off the ball keeps getting better and better. We started to put some things together in the final third in terms of creating chances, which helped us score a couple of goals.”
Lee said his team’s shift to a 4-3-3 alignment with Ripple moving from midfielder to forward has put pressure on opposing defenses in recent games and created more opportunities for his team to score goals.
“Adding a third forward to our alignment has certainly allowed us to put more pressure on other team’s defenses and created more chances for us to score some goals,” Lee said. “It’s paid off for us in the last couple of games, and we must continue to improve in our execution as we get closer to SEC play.”
Ripple scored the first goal of the match in the fifth minute of the second half when she took a pass from freshman midfielder Melissa Clarke and ripped a shot past the goalkeeper just inside the left post. She scored the game-winning goal at the 78:29 mark on a nice combination from sophomore midfielder Caroline Vanderpool and junior forward Joleen Phillips.
Ripple has scored all three of her goals this season in the last two games, and Lee said it’s just a matter of getting comfortable with her new position before she is able to really become a scoring threat for the Tigers.
“We’ve just moved her up front, so she’s starting to get a little more comfortable with the position,” Lee said. “She was great today. Both goals she took extremely well, as well as anyone in college soccer would take those two. We’ve got threats from two of our three forwards at any time when Kate and Joleen (Phillips) are both on the field in the front line. Certainly, we expect them to score when they get their chances.”
McNeese State’s Sara Overfelt scored her team’s only goal late in the match at the 83:16 mark when a shot deflected off the hands of freshman goalkeeper Jackie Moseley and into the net. Despite allowing the goal, Moseley only needed to save one shot to improve her record to 4-1 on the season.
The Tigers outshot the Cowgirls 17-8 in the match with six shots on goal, and attempted 11 corner kicks to McNeese State’s three. LSU also committed 14 fouls to nine for the Cowgirls.
The Tigers will return to action against Birmingham Southern on Sept. 19 at 5 p.m. at the BSC Soccer Park in Birmingham, Ala., as their home match scheduled for Friday against Tulane has been cancelled.