BATON ROUGE — After winning back-to-back SEC Western Division titles and competing in the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row, the LSU soccer team will begin preparation for the 2009 season in February as it competes against a challenging spring exhibition schedule.
The Tigers will play six games in a two-month span as the schedule features four teams that were participants in the NCAA Tournament this fall.
“We feel like the only way for our student-athletes to continue to develop as soccer players is to compete against the best teams in the country, and the schedule we’ve put together for the spring fits that philosophy,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “We’re excited about the opportunity to go up against teams that have not only made the NCAA Tournament, but have had success.”
The Tigers open the spring season on Feb. 28 as they travel to Austin, Texas, to battle Oklahoma State. The Cowgirls are the reigning Big 12 Conference champions after finishing their 2008 slate with an 18-1-4 overall record and a 7-1-2 mark in league play. They also finished the year ranked as high as No. 13 nationally in the final polls after advancing to the NCAA Second Round.
Fans will have the chance to see LSU in action twice in the month of March as the Tigers take on Southern Miss in Mandeville on March 7 at 4 p.m. followed by a match against Southeastern Louisiana at the LSU Soccer Complex in Baton Rouge on March 25 at 7:30 p.m.
LSU will then travel to College Station, Texas, on April 4 to play a doubleheader against the likes of Texas A&M and BYU at the Aggie Soccer Stadium.
The Tigers played their first-round match in the 2008 NCAA Tournament in College Station as a member of the Texas A&M regional. The Aggies fell to North Carolina in the Elite Eight this fall and finished the season ranked No. 7 nationally. Despite suffering a 4-1 loss at the hands of LSU early in the season, the Cougars rebounded to advance to the NCAA Second Round.
LSU is slated to wrap up its spring schedule April 18 with a trip to Orange Beach, Ala., to take on SEC West rival Auburn at the Orange Beach Sportsplex, which is the site of the SEC Tournament each year. Auburn also advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament this past fall.