BATON ROUGE ? For the second straight season, the LSU soccer team has been projected to finish in third place in the Southeastern Conference Western Division in a vote of the league’s 12 head coaches released by the SEC office Tuesday.
The Tigers are poised to make a run at their first ever trip to the NCAA Tournament as they return all 11 starters and a total of 16 letterwinners from a squad that finished 9-8-3 overall and third in the SEC West with a 4-4-3 conference mark in 2006.
This marks the first time that the Tigers have been picked to finish as high as third in the SEC West in back-to-back seasons. LSU head coach Brian Lee believes his team has the experience and maturity needed to compete for its first division crown in program history.
“We’re picked where we should be from a preseason prognostication standpoint, but our goals and expectations are much higher than that,” Lee said. “Our team is more experienced this year than we were a year ago, and our maturity has been evident through the first week of fall camp. We’re all looking forward to a great season in 2007.”
The seventh-ranked Florida Gators return 10 starters from a year ago and have been tabbed the favorite to repeat as SEC champions in 2007 as they received a total of nine first place votes. Auburn is picked to repeat as champion of the SEC West with Ole Miss following a close second.
“I don’t think there is any question that Florida should be the prohibitive favorite to repeat as conference champions this season,” Lee said. “But it should still be a great race for the overall league title that goes down to the final weekend like it has the past few seasons.”
The Tigers kick off the 2007 at home as they play host to the LSU Classic with a pair of matches scheduled against Southern Miss on Aug. 31 at 7 p.m. and its first ever match against in-state foe Louisiana Tech on Sept. 2 at 1:30 p.m. The match against the Lady Techsters is slated for a live TV broadcast by Cox Sports Television.
SEC PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH
SEC Champion: Florida (9), Kentucky (1), Georgia (1), Vanderbilt (1)
EASTERN DIVISION
Team (First-Place Votes) Total Points
Florida (9) 57
Tennessee 47
Vanderbilt (1) 34
Georgia (1) 30
Kentucky (1) 27
South Carolina
WESTERN DIVISION
Team (First-Place Votes) Total Points
Auburn (8) 58
Ole Miss (4) 50
LSU 44
Arkansas 32
Alabama 18
Mississippi State 14