BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team is fresh off of its most successful season in program history and will begin its preparation for the 2008 campaign in February as it competes against arguably the nation’s toughest spring schedule.
The Tigers will play six games in a two-month span as the schedule features five teams that competed in the NCAA Tournament and four teams that finished the season ranked among the Top 15 teams in the country in the national polls.
The NCAA provides each team five competition dates during the spring, and the Tigers will go on the road for all six matches as the field at the LSU Soccer Complex is being resurfaced.
“The spring season is all about player development, and there’s no better way for our kids to grow and mature than to compete against the very best teams in the country,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “We feel like we’ve put together the most challenging spring schedule in the country, and we look forward to seeing how we stack up against the nation’s best.”
The Tigers open the spring season on Feb. 16 as they travel to Raleigh, N.C., to take on national powers North Carolina and Duke of the Atlantic Coast Conference in a double header.
The Tar Heels have won 18 national championships in their illustrious history and finished the 2007 season ranked as high as No. 6 in the nation after advancing to the Sweet 16, while the Blue Devils finished the season ranked as high as No. 15 following an appearance in the Elite Eight.
The Tigers will then travel to College Station, Texas, on March 2 to take on Big 12 powerhouse Texas A&M before making the short trip to Natchitoches, La., on March 12 to square off against in-state rival Northwestern State. The Aggies wrapped up the 2007 campaign ranked as high as No. 13 nationally after advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
LSU is set to join Auburn, Alabama and Samford in Orange Beach, Ala., on April 5 for a series of matches as the Tigers will likely take on Auburn at the Orange Beach Sportsplex. They will wrap up the spring slate on April 12 with a match against the Texas Longhorns in Houston.
The Tigers battled the fourth-ranked Longhorns to a 2-2 draw in Austin during the 2007 regular season as Texas finished the campaign ranked as high as No. 9 in the country in the final Soccer Times Top 25 following a trip to the NCAA Sweet 16.
The Tigers won their first ever SEC Western Division title and advanced to the NCAA Second Round for the first time this fall. LSU’s spring opponents combined for an impressive 84-32-19 overall record and a 0.693 winning percentage in 2007.
“We’re really excited about the opportunity to compete against what might be the toughest spring schedule in the country,” Lee said. “Our vision for this program is to be a perennial contender for the NCAA College Cup, and it’s important that we go out and train against the best teams in the country during the spring so that we’re prepared for what we will face in the fall.”