BATON ROUGE – The LSU soccer team continues its five-game road swing to start the 2011 season with a trip to Lafayette to battle in-state rival Louisiana-Lafayette in a Sunday derby at the Ragin’ Cajuns Soccer Stadium as the sides are slated to square off at 1 p.m. CDT.
The Tigers (0-1) are looking to rebound from a season-opening defeat to Memphis on Friday night as they dropped a 3-1 decision at the Mike Rose Soccer Complex to open the campaign.
The Ragin’ Cajuns (1-0) are flying high following their 1-0 shutout of Northwestern State in their season-opening match won by way of a Golden Goal in overtime on Friday.
While Sunday’s match will be without live audio or video coverage from Lafayette, fans have a chance to receive live updates and behind-the-scenes coverage throughout the afternoon by liking LSU Soccer on Facebook and following @LSUSoccer on Twitter. In addition, fans are also welcome to join in a live chat during the match with full commentary on LSU Soccer’s official Facebook page.
“One of the mantras in our program is ‘deserve to win.’ We certainly earned the result we deserved in our opener with Memphis last night,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “We’re excited with the opportunity to get right back on the field and compete tomorrow as we work to improve as a team.”
LSU has dominated the all-time series with Louisiana-Lafayette as it owns a perfect 8-0 record against the Ragin’ Cajuns on the soccer pitch. In fact, the Tigers have yet to surrender a goal to their in-state rivals as they have outscored Louisiana-Lafayette by a 21-0 margin in eight previous matches all-time. The squads have met in each of the last two seasons, which includes LSU’s 1-0 win in Baton Rouge a year ago.
Freshman striker Alex Cook provided the highlight of LSU’s season-opening match Friday night after she opened her account in the 83rd minute with her first career goal in her collegiate debut. The freshman from Petal, Miss., led the Tigers on the offensive end throughout the match as she showed why she received the recognition as a Top 100 recruit nationally for the Class of 2011.
Sophomore striker Addie Eggleston also picked up where she left off in 2010 by assisting on Cook’s goal. Eggleston set the LSU freshman record for a single season with eight assists in her rookie campaign.
Following its match against the Ragin’ Cajuns on Sunday afternoon, LSU will break for eight days before going back on the road to face NC State in Raleigh, N.C., on Monday, Sept. 29. The Tigers and Wolfpack will kick off their matinee at 4:30 p.m. CDT from the Dail Soccer Field.