BATON ROUGE — LSU soccer head coach Brian Lee met with members of the media on Tuesday at Walk-On’s Bistreaux to discuss his team’s start in Southeastern Conference play and look ahead to the Tigers’ upcoming weekend against a pair of SEC Eastern Division foes.
The Tigers will travel to Lexington, Ky., on Friday to take on the Kentucky Wildcats at 6 p.m. CT and to Nashville, Tenn., on Sunday to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores at 1 p.m.
Below is a full transcript from today’s press conference.
LSU HEAD COACH BRIAN LEE
Opening Statement …
“Soccer is off to a good start in the SEC. It is still very early but we have won our first four games. We started off with a home weekend against Georgia and Tennessee that was very historic because an SEC West team had never swept Georgia and Tennessee in a Friday and Sunday combination, and we were able to do that in fairly emphatic fashion. Getting six goals in a 6-0 win against Georgia was a little surreal. We felt like our team was getting better but we didn’t expect to play quite that well. Then to turn around a back it up with a 5-1 win against Tennessee on Sunday was really exciting for our group.
“We then turned around and went on the road. For us we feel that we have a great home field advantage at the LSU Soccer Complex, and we feel very confident we are going to win those games. If we are going to win the SEC it is going to be done on the road. To go into Alabama and to sweep Alabama and Auburn certainly gets us off in the right direction, but it is still very early. We turn around and we have to go back on the road. Volleyball just did a great job of winning four in a row in back-to-back weekends on the road. It is extremely difficult for the college student-athlete to be mentally focused and physically handle the travel and continue to put in their best performance. That is our challenge this weekend.”
“We have Kentucky on Friday, who has got a new coach who is quickly turning that program around. They will be very organized defensively and have given up among the fewest goals in the SEC through the first two weekends. Then we turn around and have a good challenge with Vanderbilt on Sunday, who is in the top 50 in the RPI. We felt good about our non-conference season. We thought it prepared us for SEC play. The SEC is the best it has ever been. In the mid-season RPI, we have 10 teams in the top 61, so every time out we are going to get a great challenge. One of the fun things for our players about the SEC games is how different every of them are. They are all a very unique and individual challenge either at home or on the road. We are excited about that chance come Friday night with Kentucky.”
On what the team can improve on …
“We are always looking to improve. We think the results are great, but we still think we have plenty of room for improvement and the idea is to be peaking by the end of the season. Hopefully by the end of the season we have an opportunity to win an SEC championship in our last game or two and we will see where it leads going into that. We are trying to improve and we have lots of areas where we can get better even with the early season score lines. Those are a little deceiving. We have a lot we can improve on.”
On how hard to team is working …
“We think we have some kids who worked really hard. Our senior class has worked very hard for four years. One of our main mantras is ?deserve to win.’ That is the thing that captures everything about us. You deserve to win because you are doing the right thing in the classroom and in the community, and you are also deserve to win because you have worked harder than your opposition during the course of the year. We have done all that. Then in the season you have to show up ready to play and you have to compete and follow the game plan. Everyone has to know their role and contribute to the team whatever their role may be on that day. Our kids are doing a great job of that. It is really player one through 24, whatever their role is come game day that we are all pushing the same direction. “
On the importance of setting the tone in the first weekend …
“As a coaching staff we sat the day before, and as we put things together we really had no idea how it was going to go. You never know until the ball starts rolling. It was great to see that kind of positive play from our team. Georgia is a great team and deservedly in the top 10 or 15 of the country still, so it showed our kids that if we are all pushing in the same direction and everyone is working hard we have a chance to be one of the best teams in the country and we have a chance to compete to win the SEC. That opening on Friday really spring boarded us. Now you turn around and we have Kentucky on Friday that is going to be a completely different game.”
On the effect the seniors have had on the new recruits coming in …
“I think they set a great tone from day one. It is a much different environment for a player coming in than one who came in three or four years ago. There are expectations that are player driven. Our senior class is very much on the same page as the coaches on what we are trying to do every day with training and how we operate and they all buy in. Individually, they have all worked very hard to improve. Certainly, Malorie Rutledge is a much different player and athlete than she was four years ago and you can go through that senior class and have the same thing. Right now, if you are a kid joining our program you have to want to be one of the best players in the country and you have got to want to show up to compete every day in practice.”
On if the RPI ranking is what was expected …
“It is where I thought it would be. We had hoped to honestly do a little better in the non-conference schedule but it set us up to prepare for the SEC and the RPI is important. The polls are not important but the RPI is because the committee uses it as a tool to pick the teams for the NCAA and to pick the seeds for the NCAA. That little mid-season range is about where we thought we would be. We are happy with it, but we would like to move up. The strength of the conference gives us a great chance to move up that a lot of programs don’t have. If you are in a lesser conference or a conference that hasn’t done as well as the SEC, you don’t have that opportunity. We have a great opportunity to move up if we can win games.”
On who will take Rachel Yepez‘s place due to injury …
“It would probably be a variety of kids. Melissa Clarke was another one of our top forwards and missed the game against Duke and was maybe 50 percent against Georgia and Tennessee, and other kids stepped up. Natalie Ieyoub came in and played more minutes and did well. It is a team effort to pick up for it. Hopefully we are passing and moving the ball enough. No one player is irreplaceable for short term. Rachel is awesome and we want to get her back as soon as possible. She is having a great season and is certainly a big part of the team, and if she can’t play we will just deal with it and the kids who slide into that spot I’m sure will do well.”