BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team will face a difficult early season test on Friday afternoon as it travels to Tampa, Fla., to take on the Central Florida Golden Knights at 4 p.m. CT in the first game of the 2009 South Florida Invitational to be held at the USF Soccer Complex.
The Tigers (1-1) earned their first victory of the 2009 season on Friday night with a decisive 3-0 win over Southern Miss in front of 1,628 fans at the LSU Soccer Complex.
The Golden Knights (2-1) are also riding high following an impressive 3-2 win over the 11th-ranked Duke Blue Devils on Sunday as part of the Carolina Nike Classic hosted by the University of North Carolina.
“We will face an outstanding team in Central Florida on Friday night that is has the talent to compete with anyone in the country. Their performance against Duke this past weekend is evidence of that,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “We will have to compete for the full 90 minutes if we hope to come out of Friday night with a result. There is no doubt that UCF will be playing with a lot of confidence.”
This marks the first ever meeting between LSU and Central Florida on the pitch as the Tigers are already 0-1this season against teams from Conference USA. LSU opened up the 2009 campaign with a tough 2-0 defeat at the hands of the two-time defending CUSA champion Memphis Tigers on Aug. 21.
Senior Melissa Clarke opened her account for the 2009 season with the game-winner in the 40th minute of play against Southern Miss, while she also assisted with the second goal of the match by senior Malorie Rutledge in the 82nd minute. Fellow senior Rachel Yepez provided the final margin with a goal in the 87th minute of play by flicking in a header on a corner kick by senior Amanda Carreno.
Not only that, but senior defender Nikki Bush was named to the TopDrawerSoccer.com National Team of the Week on Monday after recording a career high two assists from her position at right back.
“I thought we showed some improvement last week. With that said, we have a very long way to go to be a team that can make a run in the SEC,” Lee said. “Central Florida will show us just how far we have come over the last two weeks. They have an outstanding team and will be ready to compete.”
After taking on Central Florida on Friday night, the Tigers will wrap up this year’s USF Invitational with a match against tournament host South Florida on Sunday at 11 a.m. CT at the USF Soccer Complex. The team will then return home to face the Oklahoma Sooners on Sept. 11 at 7 p.m.