BATON ROUGE – Following Friday’s 2-1 comeback win over Missouri on its home field in Baton Rouge, the LSU Soccer team will take some momentum to Gainesville, Florida, on Sunday afternoon where the team will face the 12th-ranked Florida Gators at James G. Pressly Stadium in a match that is set to kick off at Noon CT on the SEC Network+.
Fans will be able to watch the Tigers in action on Sunday afternoon on the SEC Network+ online digital platform at ESPN3.com and using the WatchESPN app available on all smartphones and tablet devices.
Fans unable to watch the match can also follow all the action on social media as they can receive live updates for the game between LSU and Florida by following @LSUSoccer on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lsusoccer and Instagram at http://instagram.com/lsusoccer and also by liking the LSU Soccer page on Facebook at http://facebook.com/lsusoccer.
The Tigers (8-3-3, 2-3-1 SEC) and Gators (9-3-1, 3-2-1) enter Sunday’s contest with identical form in Southeastern Conference play over their last three matches with each team taking four points during that span with a loss, a draw and a win over the last two weeks. Both are coming off 2-1 wins in league play on Friday night as LSU came from one goal down to defeat Missouri in Baton Rouge to extend its home unbeaten streak to 10-straight matches and Florida went on the road to conquer Tennessee in Knoxville.
Florida, which is ranked as high as No. 12 nationally in this week’s National Soccer Coaches Association of America Top 25 poll, currently sits in fifth in the SEC table and six points off the top spot with a 3-2-1 mark and 10 points in league play. The Gators are also ranked No. 13 nationally in the latest TopDrawerSoccer.com Top 25 and No. 16 nationally in the Soccer America Women’s Top 25 this week.
The Tigers moved into the qualifying positions for the SEC Tournament with their 2-1 win over Missouri on Friday night as the head to Gainesville in ninth place on the table with a 2-3-1 mark and seven points.
LSU is building an impressive resume for an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament this fall as it picked up its third win of the season against a team in the Top 35 of the NCAA’s Ratings Percentage Index by defeating Missouri last night. The Tigers own resume wins over No. 20 Duke, No. 26 Minnesota and No. 31 Missouri as they look to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2011 season.
That’s when they scored their first and only victory over Florida in the series with a 1-0 win over the 13th-ranked Gators at Pressly Stadium in Gainesville on Oct. 23, 2011. The Tigers finished in second place to Florida for the SEC Championship that season on 24 points with an 8-3 mark in league play while qualifying for the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in five years.
The Gators own a commanding 15-1-2 lead in 18 meetings all-time since their inaugural match in 1995, including a current three-game winning streak. LSU and Florida played to a pair of 1-1 draws in 2002 and 2006.
Florida always features one of the SEC’s fiercest attacks each season, and this fall is no different as the team is led by the No. 1-ranked scoring tandem in the NCAA this season in two-time All-American junior Savannah Jordan and fellow junior Brooke Sharp. Jordan is the SEC’s leading goal scorer with 13 goals in 13 games this season, while Sharp has chipped in with eight goals totaling 21 goals between them on the year.
The Gators also feature the SEC’s second-leading assist maker on the season in senior defender Christen Westphal, who has served up a team-leading seven assists in the attack through 13 matches.
After facing the nationally-ranked Gators in Gainesville on Sunday afternoon, the Tigers will head back on the road next Thursday night with a trip to Razorback Field in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where they are set to face Arkansas with kickoff set for 6 p.m. CT on the SEC Network. LSU returns to the SEC Network after scoring a 4-3 home win over Georgia back on Sept. 17 in its season debut on the network.