BATON ROUGE – After wrapping up the first half of the Southeastern Conference season tied atop the league table with a 5-1 record and 15 points in conference play, the LSU soccer team holds its position as one of the Top 30 teams nationally with a No. 27 ranking in the NCAA’s Ratings Percentage Index.
The Tigers are fresh off their biggest RPI win of the season with a 2-0 shutout of No. 14-ranked Kentucky on Sunday afternoon for their first win in program history in Lexington, Ky. LSU owns a 10-4-1 mark for the season and a 5-1 mark in SEC play to sit in a tie for first place in the SEC standings.
The RPI is the primary ratings system used by the NCAA when determining which squads will receive at-large bids to compete as part of the 2011 NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Tournament.
LSU is looking to make a return trip to the NCAA Tournament this fall for the fourth time in five seasons as it earned an at-large berth into the postseason in three-straight years from 2007-09.
The SEC continues to prove its worth as one of the premier women’s soccer leagues in the country for the 2011 season as the No. 2-ranked conference in college soccer behind the Atlantic Coast Conference in the RPI as it has held its position for the third-straight week.
LSU is one of eight teams ranked in the RPI’s Top 50 this week as they join the likes of No. 2 Florida, No. 14 Kentucky, No. 22 Auburn, No. 26 Tennessee, No. 37 South Carolina, No. 42 Vanderbilt and No. 46 Georgia. The Tigers are actually preparing to face three Top 50 teams in their next four matches on the next two weekends with fixtures slated at Auburn on Friday night, at home against South Carolina on Oct. 20 and at Florida on Oct. 23 as they look to build upon their NCAA Tournament resume.
The Texas A&M Aggies, who are set to join the SEC for the 2012 season, are ranked No. 13 in the RPI as nine of the league’s 13 teams next fall are ranked among the RPI’s Top 50 for the 2011 campaign.
While the ACC sets the pace with 10 teams ranked in this week’s RPI Top 50, both the Big 12 and Pac 12 conferences trail the SEC with five teams apiece. The Big 10 and Big East conferences follow four squads apiece among the RPI’s Top 50 with Conference USA next in line with three Top 50 programs.
NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer RPI (as of Oct. 12, 2011)
1. UCLA, 10-1-2
2. Florida, 12-3-0
3. Stanford, 13-0-1
4. Duke, 13-1-1
5. Wake Forest, 11-1-2
6. Virginia, 9-3-2
7. Memphis, 13-0-1
8. Pepperdine, 10-0-4
9. Boston College, 9-1-2
10. North Carolina, 9-2-0
11. UW-Milwaukee, 13-1-0
12. Oklahoma State, 15-0-0
13. Texas A&M, 10-5-0
14. Kentucky, 10-4-0
15. Florida State, 9-5-0
16. Penn State, 12-3-0
17. Central Florida, 8-2-4
18. California, 9-3-2
19. Santa Clara, 8-1-4
20. Marquette, 14-2-0
21. Dayton, 11-2-0
22. Auburn, 9-4-1
23. Maryland, 8-2-4
24. Baylor, 11-2-2
25. Miami (Fla.), 7-5-1
26. Tennessee, 11-3-0
27. LSU, 10-4-1
28. NC State, 9-4-2
29. West Virginia, 11-4-0
30. Virginia Tech, 9-4-1