BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team will play host to a ranked non-conference opponent for just the second time in its 11-year history when the 14th-ranked Texas Longhorns travel to the LSU Soccer Complex on Wednesday in a match scheduled for 7 p.m.
The Tigers enter the match with a 3-3 overall record and are coming off of a tough 1-0 double overtime loss to Villanova on Sunday. LSU and Texas have met twice before with the Longhorns holding a slight 2-0 advantage in a series that dates back to 2001, and the Tigers fell to the 11th-ranked Longhorns by an overtime margin of 4-3 in their last meeting in 2003.
“One of our goals coming in was to upgrade the schedule and face the top teams in the country,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “We’ve certainly done that with a home and home series with Texas. We’ll need to be at our best when they come in on Wednesday. They’re certainly an NCAA (Tournament) team and will compete for a national championship this year.”
Texas (3-2), which is coming off of a 1-0 shutout at the hands of Rice on Sunday, has only scored five goals in five matches this season but has earned quality wins against two highly-ranked opponents in No. 3 Penn State (2-1) on Sept. 1 and No. 13 Illinois (1-0) on Sept. 3.
“Texas’ record is deceiving because they’ve played one of the toughest schedules in the country to this point,” Lee said. “They lost to Auburn, who is in everyone’s Top 25, to open the season and got some big results against Penn State and Illinois. This is a great opportunity for our team to build an NCAA Tournament resume with a win against a team like Texas.”
LSU continues to be led by the play of freshman Michelle Makasini, who leads the squad with an SEC leading four goals and nine points on the season and is coming off of a week in which she was named both SEC Offensive Player and Freshman of the Week.
A total of six Tigers hail from the state of Texas, including Makasini (Euless), sophomores Jackie Moseley (McKinney) and Veronica Godbolt (Austin), and freshmen Rachel Hartman (Dallas), Katherine Lagow (Plano) and Brittany Lowe (Humble).
“Texas is prime recruiting ground for us, and I know our Texas kids are excited about this game,” Lee said. “A lot of their buddies play for Texas, Texas A&M and other schools, so this is definitely a huge game for them. They’re excited about the opportunity to play against one of the best programs from their home state.”
The Tigers are expecting a standing room only crowd for the match as Wednesday is “Baton Rouge Soccer Association Night” at the LSU Soccer Complex. The first 500 fans who enter the complex will receive an LSU Soccer t-shirt courtesy of the LSU Marketing and Promotions Department.
“Last year for this game (BRSA Night), we drew about 1,700 against Ole Miss,” Lee said. “The word from the BRSA is that we could expect well over 2,000 tomorrow night. The community is really excited about LSU soccer and the future of this program. The BRSA is a great soccer group and comes out and supports us on a daily basis. We appreciate them for that.”