BATON ROUGE – Positioning on the Southeastern Conference table will be on the line Friday night when the LSU Tigers make the trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, to face the homestanding Tennessee Lady Volunteers with kickoff set for 6:05 p.m. CT at the Regal Soccer Stadium as the match will be featured live on the SEC Network+ digital platform.
Fans can watch the Tigers (5-8-2, 1-4-1 SEC) and Lady Volunteers (6-7-1, 1-4-1) in action online at http://www.espn3.com/ or with the Watch ESPN app on all smartphones and tablets.
Fans who are unable to watch 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 this season.
Both LSU and Tennessee are looking to reverse their SEC fortunes on Friday night as the Tigers are looking snap a brief two-game losing skid and the Lady Volunteers are hoping to end a three-game winless streak this weekend. The sides are currently tied for 11th place on the SEC table with four points apiece as they eye a place in the Top 10 to earn qualification to the 2014 SEC Women’s Soccer Tournament in November.
A valuable three points will be on the line as the Tigers and Lady Volunteers are both looking to bounce back from extra-time defeats at home in their last outings last weekend. LSU suffered a 3-2 extra-time defeat to Alabama in the SEC Network Game of the Week last Thursday night before Tennessee suffered a 1-0 setback in extra time against Arkansas last Friday.
The Tigers have enjoyed tremendous success against the Lady Volunteers in recent seasons as they have posted a 3-1-3 record in their last seven meetings dating back to the 2008 SEC Tournament semifinals.
Tennessee owns a commanding 11-4-3 record in the series, but the Tigers have seen their fortunes reversed since the arrival of head coach Brian Lee in the 2005 season. The Tigers were 0-6 while dropping each of the team’s six matches against Tennessee prior to Lee’s arrival, but are now 4-5-3 since the 2005 season and 3-1-3 in their last seven meetings.
It’s a series that has produced its share of history as LSU earned its first ever victory over a Top 10 opponent with a 3-0 home win over the No. 6-ranked Tennessee Lady Volunteers on the night of Oct. 5, 2007.
The sides played to a 1-1 draw in their last meeting at the LSU Soccer Stadium in Baton Rouge on Sept. 27 of last season with LSU’s All-SEC midfielder Emma Fletcher scoring her first career goal in the 31st minute of play. Tennessee emerged as 3-2 winners in extra time in their last match at the Regal Soccer Stadium in Knoxville on Oct. 14, 2012.
The Lady Volunteers feature one of the premier players in all of college soccer with senior striker Hannah Wilkinson leading the line as the team’s leading scorer again in 2014. The New Zealand international has scored 17 goals during her collegiate career, including a team-leading four goals this fall, as a former Third-Team All-American and First-Team All-SEC performer while at Tennessee.
The Tigers feature a fearsome strike force of their own as sophomore Summer Clarke and freshman Jorian Baucom have each scored seven goals to lead the LSU attack during the 2014 season. Clarke and Baucom have also matched junior midfielder Natalia Gomez-Junco with a team-best four assists on the campaign as the team’s leading scorers this fall.
After facing the Lady Volunteers in Knoxville on Friday night, the Tigers will then travel to Athens, Georgia, on Sunday afternoon for a match against the 16th-ranked Georgia Bulldogs that is set to kick off at 2:05 p.m. CT at the Turner Soccer Complex. Sunday’s match is also scheduled for a live national television broadcast as fans can watch the Tigers and Bulldogs in action on ESPNU.