BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team, fresh off of dominating wins against UL-Lafayette, Sam Houston State and Houston last week, is receiving votes in the latest Soccer Times Top 25 poll released by the publication Wednesday.
This marks the first time in the program’s 11-year history that the Tigers are receiving votes to be ranked among the nation’s top 25 teams. LSU earned back-to-back shutouts against in-state rival UL-Lafayette (2-0) on Aug. 29 and Sam Houston State (6-0) on Friday, and routed Houston by the score of 6-1 to end the week Sunday.
“We hope this is just the start of this program’s gradual climb to the top women’s college soccer,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “I couldn’t be prouder of how the girls have played thus far and come together as a team this early in the season. We have a tough road ahead and it starts this weekend against a couple of very good teams in Navy and Villanova.”
The Tigers travel to Annapolis, Md., this weekend to take on both Navy and Villanova in matches scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 12:30 p.m., respectively. Each team enters the weekend ranked among the top 10 teams in the Mid-Atlantic region as Villanova comes in at No. 6 and tournament host Navy is ranked No. 10.
Four of LSU’s opponents are ranked in the latest Soccer Times Top 25, including No. 10 Tennessee, No. 16 Florida, No. 17 Texas and No. 22 Auburn. The Tigers return to Baton Rouge and the LSU Soccer Complex on Sept. 13 to take on the Longhorns in a match scheduled for 7 p.m.
Soccer Times Top 25
Records include games of Monday, Sept. 4
First-place votes in parentheses
Rank
School
1
Notre Dame (14)
2
Florida State (2)
3
Texas A&M
4
Santa Clara
5
UCLA
6
North Carolina
7
Portland
8
Penn State
9
Connecticut
10
Tennessee
11
West Virginia
12
Virginia
13
Duke
14
California
15
Missouri
16
Florida
17 (tie)
Southern California
17 (tie)
California State-Fullerton
17 (tie)
Texas
20
Wake Forest
21
Brigham Young
22
Auburn
23
Utah
24
Boston College
25
Marquette
Key: Pts – Total points. LW – Last week’s ranking. t – tie. nr – no ranking
Dropped out: No. 19 Georgia, No. 23 Pepperdine, No. 25 Yale.
Others receiving votes: Colorado, Georgia, Nebraska, Pepperdine, Villanova, Fresno State, Boston Uninversity, Saint Louis, Stanford, Arizona State, Oklahoma State, Illinois, Long Beach State, LSU, Michigan.
Voting panel: Patrick Baker, Georgia; Kevin Boyd, California; Anson Dorrance, North Carolina; Jillian Ellis, UCLA; Carin Gabarra, Navy; G Guerrieri, Texas A&M; Angela Kelly, Tennessee; Ray Leone, Arizona State; Jim Millinder, Southern California; Chris Petrucelli, Texas; Jennifer Rockwood, Brigham Young; Dan Tobias, Arizona, Len Tsantiris, Connecticut; Mike Tucker, Dayton; Randy Waldrum, Notre Dame; Paula Wilkins, Penn State.
Voting method: On each ballot, 25 points awarded for first place, 24 for second place, 23 for third, etc., to 1 point for 25th place.