BATON ROUGE — For the fourth-straight match, junior All-American Malorie Rutledge scored the game-winning goal while the LSU defense held off a furious attack by Vanderbilt down the stretch to lift the 19th-ranked Tigers to a 1-0 victory on Friday night at the LSU Soccer Complex.
With the victory, LSU (11-2, 5-2 SEC) set a school record with its fourth straight win in conference play and extended its home unbeaten streak to a remarkable 17 games dating back to the 2006 season.
“A mark of a good team is you have to be able to grind out wins,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “We knew it was going to be a real tough, competitive game coming in because we think Vanderbilt is one of the best teams in this league. Malorie stepped up again and scored a great goal from long range to give us the lead, and then we grinded it out those last 15 minutes just being tough.”
Rutledge, the reigning SEC Offensive Player of the Week, continued to show why she is one of the more feared attacking players in the country with another sensational effort on Friday night.
After a defensive struggle in the first half that saw the sides take a 0-0 draw into the break, Rutledge gave the Tigers the lead in the 64th minute by rifling a shot inside the right post from 30 yards out in the middle of the field to give LSU its only score of the match. It was the eighth goal of the season for the Hermann Trophy candidate and her league-leading seventh in conference play.
“Katherine Lagow played a quick, one-touch ball to me so I could split two defenders,” Rutledge said. “I picked my head up and saw I had some space, dribbled at them and made them come up a little bit. I said, ?Why not? Just take the shot.’ I just wanted to get it on frame. I did and it went right by the keeper.”
Vanderbilt (8-6-1, 2-5-0 SEC) nearly struck back minutes later off a loose ball inside the box following a corner kick, but junior Melissa Clarke showed great effort to clear the ball off the line before it crossed the plane of the goal line. Clarke’s play, along with another outstanding game from goalkeeper Mo Isom and the LSU back line sealed the victory for the Tigers.
“Mo was commanding on crosses tonight, and our back line was excellent,” Lee said. “All four of them ? Katherine Lagow, Nikki Bush, Veronica Godbolt and Brittany Potts ? were outstanding tonight.”
The Tigers were outshot in the match by an 11-10 margin, but attempted four shots on goal while Vandy did not put a shot on frame for 90 minutes. The Commodores also held the advantage in corner kicks with five for the match, while the Tigers were only able to manage two on the night.
With a win over the Commodores and an Alabama victory over South Carolina on Friday night, LSU has vaulted into second place in the overall SEC standings at 15 points with just four games remaining in the regular season. The Tigers, who trail Florida by six points in the race for the conference title, are now three points clear of Alabama and in sole possession of first place in the SEC Western Division.
The Tigers return to action on Sunday as they welcome the Kentucky Wildcats (3-10-2, 1-5-1 SEC) to the LSU Soccer Complex in a match scheduled for a 1 p.m. kickoff.