BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team looks to extend its winning streak to four straight games when it squares off against regionally-ranked Navy for the first time in its history Friday at 6 p.m. CDT at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility in Annapolis, Md.
The Tigers (3-1) are coming off of a perfect 3-0 week in which they earned back-to-back shutouts against UL-Lafayette (2-0) on Aug. 29 and Sam Houston State (6-0) on Friday, and finished the week by routing Houston on Sunday by the score of 6-1.
“We were excited to get our first win last week and carry that momentum into a great weekend against of pair of quality teams,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “We’re playing with a little bit of momentum right now and hope to continue to improve this weekend.”
Navy enters Friday’s match with a perfect 4-0 record and ranked No. 10 in the Mid-Atlantic region according to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. The Midshipmen have dominated on the defensive end as they have yet to allow a goal on the season and have outscored their opponents by a combined total of 11-0.
“Playing a team the caliber of Navy on the road will be a great challenge for our young kids,” Lee said. “I don’t think they’ve allowed a goal all year, and that’ll certainly be challenging for us as we’ve been scoring a lot of goals in the last few games. They have an organized defense that will be tough for us to crack.”
LSU features a contrasting style as it ranks at the top of the Southeastern Conference in many offensive categories, including goals (14), goals per game (3.5), points (41), points per game (10.25) and shots per game (26.75). The Tigers have outscored their opponents by a total of 14-3 and have scored at least six goals in back-to-back games for the first time since 2003.
Freshman Michelle Makasini leads the offensive attack for the Tigers as she is the reigning SEC Offensive Player and Freshman of the Week for her play in LSU’s three wins last week. Makasini is the SEC’s leading scorer through four games as she has tallied four goals and nine points on the season.
“This team is really starting to come together and just continues to improve each game,” Lee said. “The last three games have been great for us. They’ve built on each other, and we’re cleaning up our mistakes and becoming more clinical in the final third and creating great chances to score goals.”
The Tigers follow Friday’s match with one against Villanova on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. at the Glenn Warner Soccer Facility in the first ever meeting between the two schools. The Wildcats enter Sunday’s match ranked No. 6 in the latest Soccer Buzz Mid-Atlantic Top 15.