ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — The LSU soccer team is set to compete in its first Southeastern Conference Tournament since 2002 when it takes on the 16th-ranked Tennessee Lady Volunteers on Thursday at 5 p.m. CST at the Orange Beach Sportsplex.
The Tigers (8-9-2, 3-7-1 SEC) enter the tournament as the No. 8 seed and look to earn their first victory against the top-seeded Lady Vols (12-5-1, 10-1 SEC) as they are 0-7 all-time. LSU was shutout by Tennessee, 2-0, earlier this season in Baton Rouge.
“Tennessee is obviously the class of the SEC,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “To be the best you have to beat the best, and it will be a great challenge for our players to compete against a team like Tennessee. It will be a difficult test, but something we are very much looking forward to and are excited about.”
The Tigers earned their way into the tournament by defeating Arkansas, 4-3, on Friday at Lady Back Field in Fayetteville. Senior forward Stacie McDougall scored a pair of second-half goals, while freshman midfielder Melissa Clarke scored the game-winning goal and added an assist to lead LSU to victory.
Clarke was named SEC Freshman of the Week by the league office on Tuesday for her play last weekend.
Senior forward Kate Ripple leads the team with eight goals and 17 points on the season, while junior forward Joleen Phillips ranks second in both of those categories with five goals and 13 points. McDougall’s two goals against Arkansas give her three on the season, while Clarke enters Thursday’s play with one goal and four assists.
“The Arkansas win was a big one for our program,” Lee said. “Most importantly, it was good to see us score four goals in the last 30 minutes and get the kind of offensive output we haven’t had all year. We need to bottle that up and focus on what we’re capable of doing offensively to have a chance to win on Thursday.”
The Lady Vols are riding a four-game winning streak in conference play after claiming their third-straight SEC regular-season crown with a 1-0 shutout against Georgia on Friday. Junior midfielder Ali Christoph was named SEC Offensive Player of the Week and senior goalkeeper Vanessa Phillips-Bosshart was selected SEC Defensive Player of the Week for their contributions in the win.
Tennessee is led by the play of freshman forward Kylee Rossi, who leads the squad with six goals and 15 points on the season. Christoph and sophomore forward Genna Gorman follow closely behind with four goals apiece, while Phillips-Bosshart has started all 18 games in goal this season with a 1.09 goals against average and six shutouts.
Tennessee boasts one of the SEC’s top defenses as it leads the league by allowing 6.89 shots per match and ranks third in the conference by allowing 3.72 shots on goal per match. The Lady Vols limited the Tigers to just one shot and one shot on goal in their victory earlier this season.
“We’re better now than we were the last time we played Tennessee,” Lee said. “We’ll try to do the things we can do offensively like we showed against Arkansas, and hopefully we’ll create more chances for ourselves than we did last time.”
LSU has made four prior trips to the SEC Tournament while recording just one victory in its history. The Tigers became the first No. 8 seed to knock off a No. 1 seed in the first round when they shutout Auburn, 1-0, on Nov. 7, 2002. Lee said his team is happy to be in the eight-team field, but it is not content with just making an appearance.
“Our goal all year long was to make the SEC Tournament, but we aren’t happy just to be here. We want to win,” Lee said. “We need to win three games in four days to make the NCAA Tournament, and tomorrow is the first step in that process. If we stay organized and committed to the cause we can win.”
The winner of Thursday’s match will advance to the second round and face either No. 4 Vanderbilt or No. 5 Georgia in a match scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CST. Live stats of each game can be found at www.secsports.com.