BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team, which earned a 1-1 draw against 12th-ranked Florida on Sunday, looks to keep its SEC Tournament hopes alive when it welcomes Arkansas to the LSU Soccer Complex on Friday in its regular-season finale scheduled for 7 p.m.
The Tigers (8-8-3, 3-4-3 SEC) defeated the Lady Razorbacks (10-5-2, 3-4-2 SEC) last season by the score of 4-3 to punch their ticket to the SEC Tournament, and must win on Friday night if they hope to make the return trip to Orange Beach, Ala., for the second straight season.
“We’ve got a lot of respect for Arkansas, and they’re one of the 10 teams in the SEC that’s been very closely bunched all season,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “Arkansas is at No. 10 right now, but they come in with their SEC Tournament destiny in their own hands. So, we expect to face a very motivated team here on Friday night.”
The Lady Razorbacks have been led all year by the play of senior midfielder Christina Burger, who leads the team and is tied for third in the SEC with nine goals and 21 points on the season. Burger is looking to earn the second All-SEC selection of her career as she was named Second-Team All-SEC a year ago.
Senior goalkeeper Carrie Dillsaver has been the catalyst for Arkansas’ defensive effort for much of the season as she has been named SEC Defensive Player of the Week on two separate occasions on Sept. 18 and Oct. 15. Dillsaver has posted six shutouts and a 0.90 goals against average on the season.
LSU is currently in ninth place in the overall SEC standings at 12 points, and must defeat the Lady Razorbacks and receive some help from around the league to advance to the SEC Tournament that begins Wednesday. Lee said the Tigers just need to stay focused on what they can control by beating Arkansas on Friday night.
“Our job is to go take care of our business and worry about what we can control,” Lee said. “We need to go out and play as well as we can possibly play and compete for 90 minutes. If it takes 110, then we need to compete for 110 minutes. We’ve got to come out with a win and watch some scores to see if they fall out way to get ourselves to Orange Beach.”
The theme for Friday’s match is the Kicking Costume Party in which all fans who come to the game dressed in their favorite Halloween costume will be granted free admission. A pre-game Fall Frenzy is scheduled to begin an hour before kickoff at 6 p.m. in the activity area directly behind the bleachers.