BATON ROUGE – Despite seeing its run of three-straight SEC Western Division championships and NCAA Tournament appearances come to an end this fall, a youthful LSU soccer team continues to lay the foundation for future success as it begins its offseason strength and conditioning program.
While advancing to the semifinal round of the SEC Tournament for the fourth-straight season, LSU ended the year with an 8-8-5 overall record and a 4-4-3 mark with 15 points in conference play while competing against the strongest schedule in the history of the program.
The 2010 schedule featured a school record nine matches against NCAA Tournament programs with LSU posting a 1-6-2 mark. The Tigers also played a record nine matches against nationally-ranked opponents.
“We’re excited about what the future has in store for our young team. We started making some big strides toward the end of the season,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “We have a great group of kids with great character who are only getting better in the program we have in place.”
By finishing in sixth place in the final SEC standings, the Tigers finished in the top half of the league with their performance for the fourth-straight season. After earning a fourth-place finish overall with their first SEC West championship in 2007, the Tigers earned back-to-back second-place finishes in the final league table in 2008 and 2009 while adding two more division titles to their trophy case.
And with their run to the SEC Tournament semifinal this fall, the Tigers joined Florida as the only squads in the league to qualify for the conference semifinal in each of the last four seasons dating back to 2007.
In fact, LSU trails only Florida, the five-time defending SEC champion, for the best average finish in the SEC standings over the last four years. By earning consecutive finishes of fourth place, second place, second place and sixth place, the Tigers have posted an average finish of 3.50 in the final conference standings since 2007. Following the Tigers are Georgia (2-4-5-4) at 3.75, South Carolina (6-5-4-2) at 4.25, Auburn (5-3-6-5) at 4.75 and Tennessee (3-6-8-3) at 5.00.
The Tigers continued their home dominance while finishing the 2010 season with a 6-2-1 record in a total of nine games played at the LSU Soccer Complex. Since its emergence into the national spotlight over the last four seasons, LSU is an impressive 26-4-6 with a .805 winning percentage on its home turf.
That includes an impressive 15-game home unbeaten streak as the Tigers posted an 11-0-4 mark from a 3-0 shutout of Southern Miss on Aug. 28, 2009, through a 1-0 win over Kentucky on Oct. 8 of this year.
After competing with a program record 12 freshmen comprising more than half of LSU’s soccer roster in 2010, the Tigers expect to return a deep and talented roster next fall featuring three All-SEC selections on this year’s team. Junior defender and All-America candidate Allysha Chapman was honored with her first career First-Team All-SEC honor, while forward Addie Eggleston and goalkeeper Megan Kinneman were each named to the SEC All-Freshman Team following a pair of outstanding rookie campaigns.
Chapman, who was also named a Second-Team All-SEC performer as a sophomore in 2009, anchored the LSU defensive back line to perhaps its most prolific season in school history.
While establishing herself as one of the nation’s premier left backs, Chapman led a defensive effort which tied an LSU school record for goals allowed in a single season as the Tigers surrendered just 16 goals in a total of 21 matches for the second-lowest goals against average in school history at 0.72.
And with Kinneman’s emergence in goal, the Tigers are sure to feature one of the SEC’s premier defenses for years to come. Kinneman earned 14 starts during her rookie season, including starts in 12-straight matches to end the season. She has garnered serious Freshman All-America consideration with her efforts in setting new LSU school records with just 10 goals allowed and 0.66 goals against average.
Likewise, Eggleston is sure to lead the offensive attack up top in the coming years while scoring a total of three goals and a team-leading eight assists for a team-leading 14 points on the campaign.
“It’s something that our upperclassmen have come to expect, but our young players really need a good six to nine months in our strength and conditioning program, which we feel is the best in the country,” Lee said. “As it is each year that’s going to be a big point of emphasis for our team as we look ahead to 2011.”