BATON ROUGE – The LSU Soccer team saw its 2014 campaign come to an end on Thursday night with a 2-0 defeat to the visiting Auburn Tigers at the LSU Soccer Stadium as their strike partnership of Chelsea Gandy-Cromer and Tori Ball scored goals on either side of halftime on the final match day of the season ahead of next week’s SEC Women’s Soccer Tournament.
The Tigers (5-13-2, 1-9-1 SEC) dropped their seventh-straight match in SEC play to wrap up the season while falling to Auburn (11-5-3, 5-3-3) for the fifth-straight time in the series since 2011.
Auburn struck quickly on its first attack of the match as Ball played Gandy-Cromer into space in the box for one touch and the finish from 10 yards off the right post and into the back of the net to give the visitors a lead at 1-0 just 36 seconds into the contest. Gandy-Cromer’s third goal of the season was the quickest conceded by LSU during the 2014 season.
Auburn doubled its advantage straightaway from the second-half kickoff when Ball took advantage of a turnover by the LSU defense and finished a breakaway from close range past Tiger goalkeeper Catalina Rubiano. Ball pushed Auburn’s lead to 2-0 just 12 seconds following the restart to move into a tie with Brooke and Casie Ramsier for the team lead with her fourth goal on the campaign.
Rubiano turned in another outstanding shot-stopping display in goal for the home side as she made six saves on the night, highlighted by a diving save for Gandy-Comer’s header from eight yards out in the 51st minute of play to keep the deficit at 2-0 to Auburn.
LSU midfielder Natalia Gomez-Junco threatened to pull a goal back for the Tigers in the 65th minute when she lined up a 25-yard free kick taken directly in front of the Auburn goal, curling her effort over the wall and on target as goalkeeper Alyse Scott stood her ground for the save right on the goal line to deny LSU their opening goal of the match.
The Tigers threatened again just five minutes later from a corner kick taken by Gomez-Junco as rookie striker Jorian Baucom redirected defender Jordane Carvery‘s header back into the box on frame for another quick reaction by Scott to stifle the attack by the home side as the clock ticked under 20 minutes to play in regulation.
The Tigers were unable to breakdown an organized Auburn defense on the night while being limited to six total attempts with just two shots on target in 90 minutes of action in their final match of the 2014 season that was held at the LSU Soccer Stadium. Auburn certainly took advantage of their opportunities while attempting 16 shots with eight shots on target in their 2-0 victory on the night.