BATON ROUGE – Thursday night marks the midway point of the Southeastern Conference season as the LSU Tigers will return home to play host to the Alabama Crimson Tide as the sides will fight for position on the SEC table in a match that is scheduled to kick off at 6:05 p.m. CT in the SEC Network Game of the Week at the LSU Soccer Stadium.
Fans can “Geaux Free!” to each of LSU’s four remaining home matches during the 2014 regular season as admission is free at the LSU Soccer Stadium, compliments of The Advocate.
Fans can watch the Tigers in action on the SEC Network as they will appear on the network for the second-straight home match after making their national television debut this season in their last home match with the Arkansas Razorbacks on Sept. 28. The match will also be available for viewing online on the SEC Digital Network coverage of the match at http://espn3.com/ or by using the Watch ESPN app.
Fans who are unable to attend the match are invited to follow the action through social media as they can receive live updates from the ground by following @LSUSoccer on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lsusoccer and by liking LSU Soccer’s official Facebook page at http://facebook.com/lsusoccer. They are also invited to join in the team’s live in-game chat on Facebook during each match during the 2014 season.
Both the Tigers (5-7-2, 1-3-1 SEC) and Crimson Tide (7-4-2, 2-2-1) will look to bounce back from SEC defeats in their most recent matches on Sunday afternoon as they meet for the 20th time on Thursday night.
The Tigers saw a brief two-game unbeaten run in league play snapped on Sunday with a 1-0 road defeat to the 20th-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks in a match played at Stone Stadium in Columbia. Alabama dropped an identical 1-0 decision to the Ole Miss Rebels on its home turf at the Alabama Soccer Complex in Tuscaloosa after kicking off the match with a four-game unbeaten streak.
In a series that has favored LSU in recent years, the Tigers enter Thursday’s fixture with an eight-game unbeaten streak in the series with a 6-0-2 mark against the Crimson Tide dating back to their second season under the direction of head coach Brian Lee in 2006. The sides have played to draws in each of their last two meetings in Baton Rouge with a scoreless draw on Oct. 1, 2010, and a 1-1 draw on Sept. 16, 2012.
LSU’s All-SEC striker Summer Clarke delivered a 2-1 extra-time victory over the Crimson Tide in their last meeting in Tuscaloosa on Oct. 6 of a season ago when she opened the scoring in the 49th minute before scoring a game-winning Golden Goal in the in the 102nd minute of extra time en route to earning TopDrawerSoccer.com National Player of the Week honors.
Clarke is again on the mark for the Tigers in 2014 as the team’s leading-scorer with seven goals through 14 matches, including the game-winning goal in the 23rd minute of LSU’s first SEC victory for the year at Mississippi State last Friday night when they brought home a 2-0 victory from Starkville. Midfielder Natalia Gomez-Junco added her third goal of the season in the 48th minute of the team’s breakthrough victory in SEC play.
Leading the Crimson Tide attack are senior striker Laura Lee Smith, senior midfielder Theresa Diederich and freshman midfielder Hailey Brohaugh as they have combined to score 13 goals on the year. Smith is the club’s leading scorer with five goals, while Diederich and Brohaugh have chipped in with four goals apiece for the season.
Alabama’s All-SEC Dutch duo of Pia Rijsdijk and Merel Van Dongen are also among the top attacking talents in the SEC this season as Rijsdijk has scored three goals and Van Dongen has added two goals this season.
After playing host to the Crimson Tide on Thursday night in the SEC Network Game of the Week, the Tigers have the weekend off before heading back on the road next week to face the Tennessee Lady Volunteers in Knoxville on Friday, Oct. 17, before battling the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens on Sunday, Oct. 19, in a match that will feature a national television broadcast on ESPNU.