BATON ROUGE, La. – After winning double-digit matches for the first time since 2011 and ending the regular season with a four-game unbeaten streak and punctuated with a 2-1 win against Kentucky in the opening round of the conference tournament, the LSU soccer team was named the BASF Team Chemistry MVP Award winner for the month of October it was announced Tuesday.
The Tigers have put together an impressive campaign that currently sees the team sitting at 12-4-4 on the year with a 5-4-2 mark by the end of SEC play, finishing seventh in the standings to qualify for the league’s postseason tournament for the first time since 2013. LSU earned 10 points with three wins and a draw over the last few weeks of the season, rocketing up the standings to secure a berth in the tournament.
Now in his 11th year at the helm, head coach Brian Lee has ushered the Tigers into the SEC tournament now in nine of those seasons, including four-straight trips to the semifinal round of the tournament from 2007-10. In 2009, LSU made its only trip to the final in program history, as Lee has overseen 14 total tournament matches during his tenure.
The train for the squad shouldn’t stop there, as LSU has strung together a strong NCAA postseason resume in its outstanding season, as an unbeaten home record for just the second time in the 21 years of the program helped earn the Tigers some key wins over quality opponents such as No. 14 Duke and Minnesota, while earning key SEC victories over Missouri and Kentucky should help cement a return to national tournament play in just two weeks.
LSU has been led by one of the most feared strikers in the nation in sophomore forward Jorian Baucom, who helped the Tigers to the win at Kentucky in the regular season finale last Thursday by powering home two second-half goals en route to being named the SEC Co-Offensive player of the Week. The 2015 All-SEC first team selection has 15 goals on the year which is second in the SEC and sixth in the country, as she’s flanked by second team All-SEC pick Summer Clarke and backed by a defense that has only allowed four goals in its last five matches and led by SEC All-Freshman defender Alex Thomas and goalkeeper Catalina Rubiano, who has six shutouts this year.
On Monday, the Tigers got second-half goals from Natalia Gomez-Junco and Gabriela Maldonado in the 47th and 54th minute, respectively, to overcome a first half Wildcat score to earn LSU’s first win in the conference tournament since 2010, moving on to Wednesday’s quarterfinal round where LSU will take on second-seeded Missouri at Noon at the Orange Beach Sportsplex in Orange Beach, Alabama.
About BASF
As the world’s largest chemical company, BASF’s manufacturing presence in Louisiana includes operations in Geismar, Zachary and Vidalia, with nearly 2,000 employees and contractors in the state. For more information about careers at BASF, visit www.basf.us/la.