BATON ROUGE — After posting a 3-0 shutout of the sixth-ranked Tennessee Lady Volunteers on Friday night, the LSU soccer team welcomes No. 18 Georgia to the LSU Soccer Complex on Sunday in a match scheduled to kick off at 1 p.m.
The Bulldogs (10-1, 3-0 SEC) sit atop the Southeastern Conference standings after three league games as they are coming off of a 1-0 shutout of Arkansas at Lady?Back Field on Friday.
Georgia dominated the Tigers (8-1-3, 2-0-1 SEC) in Athens a year ago by coming away with a 3-0 shutout at the Turner Soccer Complex on Oct. 8. The Bulldogs hold a commanding 6-2 mark in the all-time series with LSU’s last victory coming by a 1-0 margin on Oct. 7, 2005.
“Georgia is a young but talented team, and they’re going to be extremely well-coached and organized tomorrow afternoon,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “Their back four is as structured and organized as any we’ll see all year from all reports. Coach (Patrick) Baker is a tireless worker and nothing we do in the game will surprise him or the Georgia players.”
The Bulldogs are led by a trio of goal scorers as sophomore All-SEC standout Carrie Patterson and freshmen Marah Falle and Caroline Simpson have each tallied five goals on the season.
While Georgia is one of the top scoring teams in the SEC this season with 21 goals, the side has been dominant on the defensive end as it leads the league with the fewest goals allowed at six on the season. It also boasts the second best goals against average at 0.59.
“This is another game we’re really excited about playing,” Lee said. “The SEC is unbelievable this year, and you can’t beat this kind of environment with two top-20 teams coming to town in back-to-back games. It’s all about who shows up and plays better. We feel good about the talent level of our team, and we’ll see where we are come Sunday night.”
Friday was a historic night for the LSU soccer program as the Tigers earned the program’s first victory over an opponent ranked in the Top 10 with a 3-0 shutout of sixth-ranked Tennessee.
Sophomore Michelle Makasini led the way with a pair of goals as the Tigers defeated the Lady Vols for the time in program history, while the squad also knocked off a ranked opponent for just the second time after defeating 15th-ranked Florida State by a 2-1 margin on Sept. 8, 2002.
The Tigers did so in front of the largest crowd in the history of the LSU Soccer Complex as 2,402 fans passed through the turnstiles on Friday night, eclipsing the previous mark of 2,160 against McNeese State on Sept. 14. This marks the third time that LSU has set a new all-time attendance record this season while averaging 1,486 fans in six home matches.
“I can’t say enough about how much we appreciate our fans and the support they’ve given us,” Lee said. “We feel like we have one of the premier home environments for college soccer in the country, and that’s a tremendous advantage when playing teams like Tennessee and Georgia.”
The Pelican Broadcasting Network will air Sunday’s match on a tape-delay basis at 5:30 p.m. on Cox Digital Cable Channel 113. The match will be re-aired on Monday at 11 p.m.
The Tigers follow Sunday’s match by opening a four-game SEC road swing next weekend as they travel to Auburn, Ala., to take on the Auburn Tigers on Friday at 7 p.m. in a battle for SEC Western Division supremacy. They will then make the trip to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to square off against the Alabama Crimson Tide on Oct. 14 at 1 p.m.