BATON ROUGE — After wrapping up its 2008 season a week ago with its second-straight at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament, the LSU soccer team continues to show why it is one of the up-and-coming programs in all of women’s college soccer under head coach Brian Lee.
The Tigers, who carried a No. 14 national ranking into their NCAA first-round match against the Washington Huskies, earned a trip to the postseason for the second time in program history after also winning their second-straight SEC Western Division championship.
LSU finished No. 2 in the final SEC standings with a 14-4-2 overall record and school record 7-3-1 mark and 22 points in conference play, marking the club’s highest SEC finish in team history.
“We’re very excited about the progression the program has shown in the four years that this staff has been here,” Lee said. “We accomplished many great things this season that our players can be proud of, and we hope to see even better results in 2009. We’re certainly looking forward to what will be a competitive offseason as we expect to field our best team in the spring and next fall.”
LSU’s emergence as one of the elite programs in the Southeastern Conference under Lee is unprecedented as the Tigers finished dead last at No. 12 in the league standings after the 2003 and 2004 seasons prior to his appointment as head coach of the program in 2005.
The Tigers combined for a 4-15-1 record in SEC play in 2003 and 2004 prior to Lee’s arrival, but the club has now won back-to-back SEC West crowns while posting an impressive 12-5-5 league mark in 2007 and 2008. LSU’s consecutive division championships and postseason berths are the first and second in the 14-year history of the LSU soccer program.
Not only that, but LSU has been a staple in the national rankings in each of the last two years and finished the 2008 season with a ranking in 11-straight weeks while peaking at No. 9 nationally.
“We certainly feel like that we have a very talented team here at LSU and our program has a great opportunity to become one of the best in women’s college soccer,” Lee said. “That will only be accomplished through hard work and a commitment to the team concept we teach. That is the key to any championship program, and we expect nothing less for a program like LSU.”
LSU’s student-athletes have also received recognition for their performance in four seasons under Lee, and in 2008, junior midfielder Malorie Rutledge became the first Tiger to be named the SEC Offensive Player of the Year with her emergence as one of the premier players in the country.
The two-time First-Team All-SEC selection and Hermann Trophy candidate wrapped up the year as the SEC’s leading point scorer with nine goals and 18 assists for 36 points in 20 games.
Rutledge’s 18 assists this season breaks her own single-season school record of 12 and now ranks her No. 2 on the SEC’s all-time list for assists in a season. In fact, Rutledge was the leading assist maker in the country in 2008 as she ended the season ranked No. 1 in the NCAA with an average of 0.90 assists per game, while her 18 total assists ranked No. 2 nationally.
“That’s what happens when a player commits to improving herself in every aspect of the program both on and off the field,” Lee said. “Malorie has gone above and beyond what is expected of our student-athletes in terms of her own personal development. She spends countless hours by herself on extra fitness, extra shooting and anything else she can do to become the best player she can be.
“Malorie is exactly the kind of student-athlete we want representing our program. She is certainly deserving of all the recognition she has received and will still receive this year.”
Rutledge will team with fellow 2008 All-SEC selections Melissa Clarke and Mo Isom, as well as six other returning starters, to give the Tigers an opportunity to compete for their first ever overall SEC championship in 2009. Taryne Boudreau will also rejoin the club after receiving a redshirt in 2008 while representing Canada in the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Chile.
“There is no doubt that we will have a very talented team returning in 2009,” Lee said. “We’ll get nine starters back from a team that won the SEC West and went to the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row, and we also look forward to having Taryne back in the spring. Not only that but we will have Courtney Alexander ready to play after sitting out this season, and we expect to sign several top recruits who will have the opportunity to come in and play right away.
“The competition for playing time is sure to be very intense next season. That is another hallmark of any championship program, and we’re fortunate to have that kind of competition at LSU.”