BATON ROUGE – In the wake of scoring a 4-0 shutout of Southern Miss in their preseason exhibition match a week ago, the LSU Soccer team is ready to open up the 2015-16 athletic season with a trip West to Eugene, Oregon, on Friday night to face the Oregon Ducks at Pape Field with kickoff set for 9:05 p.m. CT in a nationally-televised broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.
LSU’s season opener at Oregon on Friday night will be the very first live event broadcast aired by the Pac-12 Network in what is sure to be an exciting 2015-16 athletic season for the Pac-12 Conference.
Fans who are unable to watch the match live are invited to follow the all the action on social media as they can receive live updates by following @LSUSoccer on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lsusoccer and Instagram at http://instagram.com/lsusoccer and by liking LSU Soccer on Facebook at http://facebook.com/lsusoccer. They are also invited to join in the team’s live in-game chat on Facebook throughout the match.
This marks LSU’s first trip to Oregon in 10 years when the Tigers first opened the Brian Lee era at the Oregon Classic to kick off their 2005 season. The Tigers and Ducks are set to face one another for the third time after Oregon won the inaugural meeting in Eugene by a 2-0 margin on Aug. 28, 2005, with LSU returning the favor with a 1-0 victory in Baton Rouge on Sept. 9, 2011.
The Tigers have actually won each of their last two matches against Pac-12 opposition that also includes a 1-0 win over the No. 13-ranked USC Trojans on Sept. 8, 2013, in their last match at the Minnesota Gold Classic in Minneapolis. Their last defeat to a Pac-12 foe came on Nov. 14, 2008, with a 3-2 overtime loss to Washington in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the NCAA College Station Regional.
“We’ve had a great two weeks of preseason as a group to this point, and we’re just looking forward to getting it all started against a good Oregon team tomorrow night,” Lee said ahead of Friday’s season opener as he begins his 11th season as head coach of the Tigers. “We came away from our exhibition last week with a positive mentality, and now the challenge will be to translate that into results when it counts the most.
“Oregon will be very excited to open up the season on their home field and will be looking to get off to a fast start just like we are, so it should make for a great opener between two major conference programs.”
Like the Tigers, the Ducks enter Friday’s opener on the back of a positive result in preseason exhibition action after playing perennial national power Portland to a 0-0 draw away from home last Saturday night. Oregon looks to win its season opener for the fifth time in six seasons, while the Tigers have won each of their last three season openers and are 6-4 to start a campaign in 10 previous season under Lee.
LSU’s senior midfielder Natalia Gomez-Junco and junior All-SEC striker Summer Clarke will step onto the field with a scoring touch after netting two goals apiece in the team’s 4-0 win over Southern Miss last Friday.
Clarke is the program’s active career scoring leader as she enters her junior season with 17 goals to her name in two previous seasons in Baton Rouge, including her team-leading 10 goals as a freshman in 2013 en route to earning Second-Team All-SEC honors in her debut season. The Canadian international followed with seven goals as a sophomore in 2014 to rank second in the squad a year ago.
Sophomore striker Jorian Baucom returns as the team’s top goal scorer from last fall when she found the net eight times to highlight her rookie campaign in which she was voted to the SEC All-Freshman Team. It was a freshman season that earned her an invitation to three national training camps with the U.S. Under-20 Women’s National Team in the spring and summer.
Clarke, Baucom and Gomez-Junco also return as the team’s leading assist makers from last season when they tied one another with four assists apiece to top the team’s scoring charts during the 2014 campaign.
The Tigers return an experienced squad with nine seniors, seven full-time starters and 17 letterwinners stepping onto the field once again in 2015. They look to be led by a potent attack this fall while returning each of their top six scorers from the 2014 season with 25 of the 26 goals scored a year ago also returning to the squad.
After kicking off their 2015 regular season in Eugene on Friday night, the Tigers will open up a five-game homestand on Tuesday when they welcome in-state rival Northwestern State to Baton Rouge in their first home match of the campaign that is set to kick off at 7 p.m. CT at the LSU Soccer Stadium. Fans are able to “Geaux Free!” with each of LSU’s 12 home matches during the 2015 regular season, as admission is absolutely free at the LSU Soccer Stadium once again this season, compliments of The Advocate.