BATON ROUGE — Sophomore forward Roslyn Jones cut the Auburn lead in half with her sixth goal of the season in the 56th minute but the LSU soccer team was unable to tie the match late and dropped its third straight conference game Friday by the score of 2-1.
The Tigers fall to 7-7-2 on the season and 2-3-2 in the Southeastern Conference, while the Tigers from the Plains run their overall record to 9-3-2 and find themselves in sole possession of second place in the SEC Western Division with a 3-2-2 mark and 11 points in league play.
Senior Jenny Zarzour scored Auburn’s first goal of the match by converting a penalty kick in the 32nd minute after an LSU defender was whistled for a foul in the right-hand side of the penalty box. Freshman Caitlin King pushed the Tigers’ lead to 2-0 in the 37th minute by curling a shot inside the far post from the top of the box for her team-leading fifth goal of the season.
“There’s no question that the penalty kick had a huge impact on the game,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “It was probably a good call and is just not the right place to make a foul because they weren’t really in position to score. That puts you in a big hole against a good team, and we were unable to climb out of it tonight.”
Jones cut into the Auburn lead when she took a feed from freshman midfielder Michelle Makasini and ripped a shot past a diving Allison Whitworth and into the back of the net from inside the six-yard box. Jones is currently second on the team with six goals, while Makasini increases her SEC lead with 25 points on the season.
The Tigers managed just seven shots with one shot on goal in the first half but kept the offensive pressure on Auburn for much of the second half as they finished the match with 19 total shots, including five shots on goal, and four corner kicks. Auburn managed a total of 13 shots with eight shots on goal and just two corner kicks.
“We fought hard and spent most of the second half playing on their end of the field,” Lee said. “We possessed the ball really well and had a lot of great chances, and their chances came on the counter attack because we had the ball on their end so much in the second half. But you just can’t put yourself in that kind of a hole against a team like Auburn and expect to win.”
The Tigers look to end their three-game skid on Sunday as they welcome Western Division rival Alabama to the LSU Soccer Complex in a match scheduled for 1 p.m. The first 500 fans who enter the gate will receive free pom poms and LSU Soccer trading cards courtesy of the LSU Marketing and Promotions Department.
“There’s no doubt that Sunday is a must-win game for our team,” Lee said. “They are all must-wins at this stage because there’s a lot of balance in the conference with everyone trying to make it to Orange Beach. We wouldn’t even be in the SEC Tournament if it started today. We have to compete well against a tough opponent on Sunday to get the result we want.”