BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team looks to extend its Southeastern Conference win streak to three games and its overall unbeaten streak to six games when it travels to Oxford, Miss., on Sunday to take on Ole Miss at 1 p.m. in a battle for SEC West supremacy.
The Tigers (7-4-1, 2-0-1 SEC) and the Rebels (6-4-1, 2-0-1 SEC) are tied atop the SEC Western Division standings after three conference matches with seven points apiece with LSU holding a slight 6-5 advantage in the all-time series. Ole Miss is an experienced squad that returns all 11 starters and 20 letterwinners from last season.
“Ole Miss will be a great challenge for our young team on the road this Sunday,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “They return everybody from a team that finished second in the SEC a year ago and have a lot of experience in big games. We’re looking forward to a great match on Sunday.”
The Tigers are coming off of a 1-0 shutout of the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Friday on the strength of freshman midfielder Michelle Makasini‘s SEC leading 10th goal of the season on a free kick in the 65th minute of the match. Junior goalkeeper Valerie Vogler improved her record to 4-0-1 on the season by earning her third shutout in five starts.
Ole Miss posted a shutout of its own on Friday by edging the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks by the score of 2-0 at the Ole Miss Soccer Stadium. The Rebels have recorded two straight shutouts and are on a four-game unbeaten streak overall as they earned their first SEC win of the season on Sunday by dominating 25th-ranked Georgia, 3-0.
Senior forward Brittney Potts leads the offensive attack for Ole Miss as she is tied for the third highest goal total in the SEC with six and has a team leading 14 points on the season. Junior goalkeeper Ann Shelton was named to the Soccer Buzz Elite Team of the Week on Monday for her performance in goal last weekend.
“Stylistically, Ole Miss is very similar to Vanderbilt,” Lee said. “They’ve got some good soccer players on the team, and by that I mean kids who play the right way and keep the ball moving and things like that. It should be a very aesthetically pleasing game. Their team is one of the flagship programs at Ole Miss and Coach (Steve) Holeman has done an outstanding job.”
The Tigers continue their four-game SEC road trip next weekend against a pair of Eastern Division rivals with matches against the 16th-ranked Tennessee Lady Volunteers on Friday at 6 p.m. CDT and the Georgia Bulldogs on Sunday at 1 p.m.