BATON ROUGE – Members of the LSU Soccer team will be battling for positioning on the Southeastern Conference table and to strengthen their NCAA Tournament resume on Thursday night as they make the trip to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to face the Arkansas Razorbacks with kickoff set for 6 p.m. CT at Razorback Field on the SEC Network.
The Tigers (8-4-3, 2-4-1 SEC) make their return to the SEC Network for the second time this season after scoring a 4-3 win over Georgia in Baton Rouge in their 2015 network debut back on Sept. 17.
Fans will be able to watch the Tigers in action on Thursday night on the SEC Network’s 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 the action on social media while receiving live updates from Razorback Stadium by following @LSUSoccer on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lsusoccer and on Instagram at http://instagram.com/lsusoccer. They can also like LSU Soccer’s Facebook page at http://facebook.com/lsusoccer and join in the team’s live in-game chat.
Both LSU and Arkansas are looking to bounce back from a pair of one-goal defeats away from home on Sunday afternoon when the Tigers dropped a 2-1 decision at 12th-ranked Florida in Gainesville and the Razorbacks went down to a 1-0 defeat at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, in their most recent fixtures.
The Tigers have held the upper hand in the series over the past decade as they take to Fayetteville an 11-game unbeaten run against the Razorbacks with a 10-0-1 mark in the series dating back to the 2004 season. The sides played to a dramatic 3-3 draw in Baton Rouge in their last meeting on Sept. 28 of last season that snapped a 10-game winning streak by the Tigers in the series in the regular season from 2004-13.
LSU is looking to improve its standing on the SEC table and push for SEC Tournament qualification on Thursday night while arriving at Razorback Field in 11th place in the standings with seven points in league play.
The Razorbacks are also looking to pull even with the Tigers on the table as they have taken four points from their seven conference matches to this point of the season while posting a 1-5-1 mark in SEC play. Arkansas, which has qualified for the NCAA Tournament in each of the last two seasons, followed a Sweet 16 appearance in 2013 with a trip to the Round of 32 a season ago.
The Razorbacks hope to take their first points from the Tigers on their home field since Oct. 31, 2003, when they emerged as 3-2 winners over the visitors. The Tigers have won six matches in a row at Razorback Field as they have outscored Arkansas by a 20-7 margin while netting an average of 3.3 goals per game in Fayetteville since 2004.
LSU is building an impressive resume for an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament this fall as it is ranked No. 46 in the NCAA’s latest Ratings Percentage Index released on Monday. Their resume is headlined by wins over two RPI Top 20 teams in Big Ten leader and No. 19 Minnesota and perennial ACC power and No. 20 Duke.
Thursday’s match at Arkansas is the only match day this week for the Tigers as they will break for eight days before returning to action with a home fixture against Mississippi State on Friday, Oct. 23, with kickoff set for 7 p.m. CT at the LSU Soccer Stadium. They follow with their 2015 home finale on Sunday, Oct. 25, against nationally-ranked South Carolina with kickoff scheduled for 1 p.m.