BATON ROUGE – The fourth-largest crowd in the history of the LSU Soccer Complex of 1,982 witnessed the Tigers and the SEC West leading Alabama Crimson Tide play to a 0-0 draw in 110 minutes of action on a perfect Friday night in Baton Rouge.
The Tigers (3-5-3, 0-1-2 SEC) are now unbeaten in their last five matches with the Crimson Tide (7-2-1, 2-0-1 SEC), while extending their home unbeaten streak to 13 games with the draw.
Friday night’s match was the focus of this year’s “Cram the Complex” campaign, and LSU’s fans responded with the fourth-largest home crowd in program history.
“The crowd was very noticeable on the field throughout the game, especially the student section,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “They (‘The Sidekicks’) did a great job of keeping the crowd in the game. Playing in front of that kind of crowd is fun for our team. We have another big division game on Sunday, and we hope they come back out in support of the team.”
LSU held the advantage for much of the night as it outshot Alabama in the match by a 16-7 count with a 7-4 edge in shots on goal. The Tigers also attempted a season-high eight corner kicks on the night to just one corner kick for the Crimson Tide.
LSU freshman goalkeeper Megan Kinneman made four saves on the night as she picked up her second shutout this season in four starts. Alabama goalkeeper Justine Bernier held off the LSU attack with seven saves while denying the Tigers on multiple scoring chances during the match.
The Tigers fired out of the gate with a flurry in the opening 25 minutes with their best opportunity coming off the foot of freshman striker Addie Eggleston. Following an Alabama turnover outside of the penalty area, Eggleston dribbled across the top of the box through two defenders and rifled a left-footed shot on frame that was punched over the crossbar by a leaping Bernier.
“I got some good balls behind that I could run onto. We just still need to finish them,” Eggleston said. “We need to have that mindset that we need to score earlier in the match so it does not come down to pushing at the last minute of the game. We need to put it away earlier.”
Both teams battled back and forth into the second half with the Tigers having their best chance on goal with 19 minutes remaining in regulation.
After earning a free kick about 25 yards in front of the net, junior defender Taryne Boudreau played a perfect quick free kick to senior forward Courtney Alexander running free in the penalty area. Alexander fired a shot from 12 yards that sailed just over the crossbar and out of play.
“I think we had a few chances, and we knew that we could have gotten the win out of this game,” Eggleston said. “We really wanted to come away with a win tonight. We had some great chances, we were just unlucky not to finish. Their goalkeeper played a great game.”
LSU returns to action on Sunday afternoon as they put their 13-game home unbeaten streak to the test against Auburn in a match scheduled to kick off at 1 p.m. CDT. LSU enters the match with an impressive three-game winning streak against Auburn in the series. The match is set for a live TV broadcast as part of Cox Sports Television.