BATON ROUGE — Five seniors made their final appearance at the LSU Soccer Complex on Sunday as the LSU soccer team was shutout by South Carolina, 3-0, for its fifth-straight defeat in the Southeastern Conference.
The Tigers (6-9-2, 2-7-1 SEC) fall to 1-5-1 all-time against the Gamecocks (6-11, 1-9 SEC), including a current three-game losing streak in the series.
“Friday night we put in a great effort against a good Florida team, but we didn’t seem to be able to carry that into today’s game,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “Obviously, the coaching staff thinks South Carolina is much better than the last place team in the SEC. They’ve got a bunch of good players and good coaches, and they played a great game today.”
South Carolina raced out to an early 2-0 lead in the match by scoring a pair of goals just 1:09 apart in the first half. Midfielder Kimmy Gillespie scored her first goal of the season and South Carolina’s first of the match at the 25:08 mark when she ripped a shot inside the left post from five yards out on a pass from forward Amanda Thurber.
Midfielder Kim Boulos added South Carolina’s second goal in the following minute at the 26:17 mark with a shot from approximately 30 yards out that appeared to be saved by LSU goalkeeper Jackie Moseley. However, it was ruled that Moseley caught the ball inside the goal and the Gamecocks carried their lead into the locker room.
“We really weren’t in it the first 20 minutes for some reason, and a goal was coming,” Lee said. “They could have scored a couple of times before their first goal. The second goal is just something I’ve never really seen before. There was some question as to whether the linesman was in the proper position to make that call, but that’s not to say it was right or wrong. I don’t think Jackie really made a mistake on that one. It is what it is.”
Forward Darcel Mollon tacked on South Carolina’s third goal unassisted in the 65th minute of play when she broke away from the LSU defense and beat Moseley for her team-leading fifth goal of the season.
The Gamecocks kept the offensive pressure on the Tigers throughout the match as they attempted 16 shots with nine shots on goal and six corner kicks to just seven shots with two shots on goal and two corner kicks for LSU. The Tigers committed 13 fouls to 12 for South Carolina, and a total of four yellow cards were issued with Gamecock midfielder Mary Worthen receiving a red card after committing her second major infraction at the 62:05 mark.
“We really weren’t in the game today from the start,” Lee said. “We had trouble in the first half keeping possession of the ball, and in the second half we weren’t able to take advantage of the opportunities we had. We’ve got to work hard this week and get ready to play a tough Arkansas team on the road on Friday.”
Despite the loss, LSU remains in contention for the eighth and final seed in the SEC Tournament, which will be played at the Orange Beach Sportsplex in Orange Beach, Ala., beginning Nov. 3. The Tigers are currently in ninth place in the overall SEC standings with seven points and trail Arkansas for the final spot by just two points. The Tigers travel to Fayetteville on Friday to face the Lady Razorbacks at Lady Back Field at 7 p.m. in their final match of the regular season with the winner advancing to the SEC Tournament.