BATON ROUGE — Head coach Brian Lee and the LSU soccer team look to return to their winning ways this weekend as they travel to The Cage in Mobile, Ala., to take on the South Alabama Jaguars in a match scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m.
The Tigers (3-4), who are coming off of a tough 4-2 defeat at the hands of 14th-ranked Texas on Wednesday, have dropped three matches in a row but their four losses on the season have come against teams with a combined record of 20-4-1.
Navy and Villanova are two of only 13 teams in the country (out of 301) to remain unbeaten and untied after three weeks of the season, while Texas has fallen to No. 11 Rice and No. 20 Auburn and SMU has dropped matches to No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 5 North Carolina.
“Playing top competition is what will prepare our team for the rigors of playing in the Southeastern Conference,” Lee said. “Now, we need to break through and win one of these games. We’re certainly challenging our young kids with the schedule that we have and are maturing with each game.”
South Alabama (1-5) is coming off of its first victory of the 2006 season as it shutout Cleveland State at home Sunday by the score of 1-0. Junior Kelly Tarrant, who was the team’s leading scorer a year ago with 11 goals and 29 points, scored the game-winning goal for the Jaguars on a penalty kick in the 63rd minute of the match.
“We’re looking forward to getting right back on the field and improving from our mistakes as we head toward the SEC season,” Lee said. “South Alabama is coming off of a big win for their young team and we look forward to a great match on Friday.”
LSU follows its match against South Alabama on Friday with one against Southern Miss on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Marshall Bell Soccer Complex in Hattiesburg, Miss. This marks the Tigers’ first ever meeting with the Golden Eagles in their 11-year history and third of the season against a team from Conference USA.