BATON ROUGE – After leading the LSU Soccer team to an unbeaten weekend during its first Southeastern Conference road trip of the year, junior goalkeeper Megan Kinneman and redshirt freshman midfielder Tori Sample have been honored as SEC Players of the Week for their performance this week.
Kinneman has been selected the SEC Defensive Player of the Week and Sample has been named the SEC Freshman of the Week after guiding the Tigers to a 1-0 shutout at Mississippi State on Friday night and 2-2 draw at Georgia on Sunday while coming home with four points on the weekend.
A native of Missouri City, Texas, Kinneman is the SEC Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in her collegiate career following an outstanding weekend in goal for the Tigers.
Kinneman surrendered just two goals to LSU’s opponents while facing 47 total shots and 23 shots on goal in 200 minutes of action on the weekend. She allowed just one goal in the run of play as one came by way of a penalty kick in a 2-2 draw at Georgia on Sunday afternoon. Kinneman set a career-high for saves in a match with 15 stops on the road against the Bulldogs, eclipsing the 11 saves she posted in a 1-1 draw with the Alabama Crimson Tide in Baton Rouge on Sept. 16.
Kinneman also pitched her fourth shutout of the season in a 1-0 win at Mississippi State on Friday with an impressive six saves to lead the Tigers to their first SEC win of the 2012 campaign.
This marks the second time in her career that Kinneman has received an SEC Player of the Week honor as she was named the SEC Freshman of the Week on Oct. 4, 2010.
While Kinneman led the defensive effort on their road trip, Sample provided a spark on the offensive side of the field by scoring the game-winning goal in the 81st minute at Mississippi State and serving the assist on the game-tying goal in the 84th minute at Georgia to finish off an unbeaten weekend.
Sample certainly made the most of her first career goal as an LSU Tiger as she found the net on a 10-yard strike at the 80:44 mark to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead they would not relinquish while taking home the first SEC win of the season. With LSU trailing 2-1 late in regulation at Georgia, Sample’s strike from distance off the crossbar was cleaned up by freshman Colby Maffei for the tying goal at the 83:57 mark.
A native of Seabrook, Texas, Sample is now tied as the team’s leading assist maker for the 2012 season as she has matched the three assists by fellow freshman Fernanda Pina this fall.