BATON ROUGE — Freshman Michelle Makasini and senior Joleen Phillips each scored their first goals of the season to lead the LSU soccer team to its first win of 2006 in a 2-0 blanking of in-state rival UL-Lafayette on Tuesday at the LSU Soccer Complex.
The Tigers improve to 1-1 on the season and are now 6-0 all-time against the Ragin’ Cajuns in a series that dates back to 2000. In fact, LSU has outscored UL-Lafayette by a combined total of 16-0 in the series.
“This was a great win for our team and a great game played by our kids,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “Our ball movement was great throughout the game, and that’s a huge emphasis for us each game. If we keep the ball moving box to box and create as many chances as we did tonight, the sky is the limit for this team. It’s an extremely talented group.”
Makasini got the Tigers rolling in the 40th minute as she ripped a shot around the wall and past a diving keeper on a free kick for the first goal of her LSU career. She took the free kick from 20 yards out after being fouled just outside the box.
“I’ve always been confident taking free kicks and tonight was no different,” Makasini said. “Those have always been my favorite kicks. It feels great to score, but I just want to do whatever it takes to help the team win. It doesn’t matter to me if I’m the one scoring goals or if I’m getting my teammates involved.”
The Tigers wasted little time in extending their lead to 2-0 in the 47th minute as Phillips took a feed from sophomore Melissa Clarke in front of the net and ripped a shot past the keeper from point-blank range to score her first goal of the season and 10th of her career.
“We played this game more like we’ve been playing in practice,” Phillips said. “That combination that Melissa and I had for my goal was exactly what we’ve been doing in practice, getting to the end line and playing it in like she did. The ball was set up perfect for me and it was an easy finish.”
The Tigers dominated on the offensive end by finishing the match with 27 shots, including 10 shots on goal, and 11 corner kicks, while the Ragin’ Cajuns countered with 10 shots, two shots on goal and two corner kicks. Sophomore Jackie Moseley only needed to save two shots to earn her first shutout of the season and sixth of her career.
“The biggest critique we may have is that we’d like to hit the target more,” Lee said. “We want to make the goalkeeper make more saves. They only had to make eight saves tonight out of 27 shots. We didn’t hit the posts or the crossbar, so 19 of our shots that missed the frame. We’ve got great finishers on this team and that’ll come as the season progresses.”
The Tigers return to action Friday when they kick off their first home weekend of the season against Sam Houston State in a match scheduled for 7 p.m. at the LSU Soccer Complex followed by a match against Houston on Sunday at 1 p.m.