BATON ROUGE – A potential bye into the quarterfinal round of the 2013 SEC Women’s Soccer Tournament will be on the line on Thursday night when the LSU Soccer team wraps up its regular season with a trip to College Station, Texas, for a match against the 23rd-ranked Texas A&M Aggies that is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. CT at Ellis Field.
The Tigers (9-7-2, 5-4-1 SEC) will look to snap their four-game losing skid in Southeastern Conference play as they look to crack the top six of the final SEC standings with a win on Thursday night.
LSU currently sits in a tie for sixth place in the SEC standings with Georgia as each team has totaled 16 points going into Thursday’s match, but the Tigers hold the No. 7 seed in the SEC Tournament with just one game remaining as Georgia won the head-to-head meeting between the two sides by a 2-1 margin on Oct. 18.
The Aggies (13-4-1, 8-2) will clinch at least a share of the SEC Championship with a win in the regular-season finale for the two sides as they enter the match tied atop the SEC table with the defending champion Florida Gators as each team has posted an 8-2 mark with 24 points through 10 league matches. Texas A&M is ranked as high as No. 23 nationally this week in both the Soccer America Top 25 and Soccer Times Top 25.
The SEC Tournament will be held Nov. 4-10 at the Orange Beach Sportsplex in Orange Beach, Ala., as seeds Nos. 7-10 will play on Monday with the top six seeds each receiving a bye into Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
This marks the fourth time in five matches in which LSU faces a nationally-ranked opponent as they face Texas A&M on Thursday night. The Tigers are seeking their first victory in the series that dates back three games to the second round of the NCAA Tournament during the 2009 season as they have drawn one and lost two against their emerging rivals.
The Tigers suffered a 1-0 defeat to the Aggies in the last meeting between the two sides in Baton Rouge on Sept. 14 of last season in Texas A&M’s debut as a member of the Southeastern Conference.
The Aggies are led this season by All-SEC striker Shea Groom, who has scored a team-leading 11 goals and 25 points this fall after earning a second-team all-conference selection in her first SEC season a season ago. The Aggies also feature freshman striker Liz Keester’s seven goals and six goals apiece by juniors Allie Bailey and Kelley Monogue to form one of the SEC’s leading attacks in 2013.
Texas A&M will provide live streaming video of the match through its subscription service and a free audio-only broadcast of Thursday’s match between the Tigers and Aggies at http://www.aggieathletics.com.
Not only can fans watch the Tigers in action on Thursday evening, but LSU’s supporters can also receive live updates and behind-the-scenes coverage of the club’s match at Texas A&M by liking LSU Soccer on Facebook at http://facebook.com/lsusoccer and by following @LSUSoccer on Twitter and Instagram.