BATON ROUGE – The LSU soccer team will put its impressive 13-game home unbeaten streak on the line on Sunday afternoon when it plays host to SEC Western Division rival Auburn in a fixture scheduled to kick off at 1:07 p.m. CDT at the LSU Soccer Complex.
A regional television audience will tune in when LSU (3-5-3, 0-1-2 SEC) and Auburn (8-3-0, 2-1-0) set to kick off live on Cox Sports Television. The match is also scheduled for a live online radio broadcast at www.totalsportsradio.com with Jason Kelly providing the play-by-play.
LSU enters the match with a 13-game home unbeaten streak that dates back to a 3-0 blanking of Southern Miss on Aug. 28, 2009. The Tigers played SEC West leading Alabama to a 0-0 draw Friday night in front the fourth-largest crowd in the history of the LSU Soccer Complex with 1,982 fans on hand for the match.
LSU also enters the match with a three-game winning streak against Auburn, which includes a thrilling 2-1 overtime win in the last game played at the LSU Soccer Complex in 2008. LSU also earned two shutout wins a season ago with a 2-0 win in Auburn and a 1-0 win in the second round of the SEC Tournament.
Auburn picked up a narrow 3-2 win on the road at Arkansas on Friday night and will kick it off Sunday as winners in four of its last five matches. Auburn is currently on six points in fifth place on the SEC table.
The Tigers from the Plains are led by the performance of All-American midfielder and Hermann Trophy candidate Katy Frierson, who has set opposing defenses on fire this season while scoring six goals and dishing out seven assists for an SEC-leading 19 points on the campaign. Senior Ashley Marks has added a total of four goals in the attack, while Mary Coffed and Jessica Rightmer have scored three goals apiece.
LSU counters with one of the strongest defenses in the conference this fall as the Tigers boast a 0.69 goals against average while allowing only eight goals in 11 matches in 2010 to rank No. 3 in the SEC in both defensive categories. What’s even more impressive is that of the eight goals allowed by LSU defense this season, only three goals have been scored by opponents in the run of play. LSU has now allowed a goal in the run of play since a 3-1 defeat to No. 16-ranked Wake Forest back on Sept. 3.
Freshman goalkeeper Megan Kinneman has been impressive in four career starts as she has pitched a pair of shutouts with a sparkling 0.45 goals against average in 400 minutes of action.
After battling SEC West rival Auburn on Sunday afternoon at the LSU Soccer Complex, LSU continues a four-game SEC homestand next weekend against the SEC East as it plays host to Kentucky on Friday at 7 p.m. followed by a match against Vanderbilt on Sunday, Oct. 10, at 1 p.m.