BATON ROUGE – As teams enter the stretch run of Southeastern Conference play and battle one another for seeding in the SEC Tournament that is scheduled to begin in two weeks, the LSU soccer team dropped a 2-0 decision to the 10th-ranked Florida Gators on Thursday night at the LSU Soccer Complex.
Despite the loss, the Tigers (6-7-4, 3-3-3 SEC) maintained control of the SEC Western Division race with just two regular season games to play as they have earned 12 points in conference play. Alabama and Auburn remained one point back in a tie for second place with 11 points following defeats to Georgia and Tennessee, respectively, in home matches on Thursday night.
The Gators (13-2-2, 7-1-1) kept pace with South Carolina at the top of the league standings as each side is four points clear of Georgia in the race for the overall SEC championship with 22 points apiece.
“I thought we played pretty well tonight and were unfortunate not to score a couple of goals with so many chances we created for ourselves,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “We have not created scoring chances like that in an SEC game all season long, and really not in any game we have played against Florida in six years since we’ve been here. It was just one of those nights for our team.
“We did a great job of putting ourselves in the right position. It is just a matter of finishing the chances we create for ourselves. We didn’t do that tonight. It is important that we move on from this and get ready for another big challenge ahead of us Sunday when we go on the road against a good South Carolina team.”
Florida raced out to an early 1-0 lead in the fourth minute of play on a brilliant 35-yard strike by freshman midfielder Taylor Travis that sailed into the top-left corner of the net at the 3:56 mark.
The Tigers came right back and nearly equalized in the 16th minute of play when sophomore striker Carlie Banks slipped a through ball to junior midfielder Natalie Martineau running past the Florida back line, where she took a touch one-on-one with Gator goalkeeper Katie Fraine and fired a shot inches wide of the right post from eight yards out in the left side of the penalty area.
Banks followed in the 18th minute with a glorious opportunity of her own as she took possession streaking through the right side of the area and chipped an open shot on frame over Fraine, who came off of her line to defend, but the bouncing ball was cleared off the line by a Florida defender out of play.
And after intercepting an errant square ball by Florida center back Ashlee Elliott in the 27th minute of play in the first half, freshman striker Addie Eggleston broke free from the defense and fired right-footed strike inside the left post that was saved out of play for an LSU corner kick by a diving Fraine.
LSU continued to pressure into the second half and nearly broke through with shots by Kellie Murphy off the left post in the 80th minute and Courtney Alexander off the right post in the 90th minute of action.
Sophomore striker Natalia Torosian handed Florida a commanding 2-0 edge in the 71st minute that proved to be the final margin as she scored her third goal of the season on a shot from 10 yards directly in front of the net on a centering pass near the end line by freshman midfielder Maggie Rodgers.
One look at the stat sheet shows just how close the match proved to be on the field with each team posting 11 total shots and five shots on goal on the night. Florida held a slight 4-3 edge in corner kicks.
The Tigers return to action on Sunday afternoon as they travel to Stone Stadium in Columbia, S.C., for an interdivisional clash with the 15th-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks in a match scheduled to kick off at noon CT. The match is slated for a live television broadcast to a national audience on ESPNU. The Tigers return home Oct. 29 for their regular season finale when they play host to Arkansas at 7 p.m. CT.