BATON ROUGE – Members of the LSU Soccer program continue to pile up the postseason honors for their performance in leading the Tigers back to the NCAA Tournament in 2015 as Jorian Baucom, Summer Clarke and Natalia Gomez-Junco each picked up All-South Region honors from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America on Thursday.
Baucom was named an NSCAA First-Team All-South Region performer as one of the top strikers in college soccer this season, while Clarke and Gomez-Junco were each chosen as NSCAA Second-Team All-South Region selections after leading the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in team history.
2015 NSCAA All-South Region Teams
The Tigers (13-6-4) played their best soccer at the end of the season while taking a six-game unbeaten streak into the semifinal round of the SEC Tournament to earn an at-large berth into NCAA postseason play.
LSU’s season was highlighted by a pair of home wins during the non-conference season against teams that would later qualify for the NCAA Tournament, including a 1-0 defeat of Minnesota on Aug. 30 and another 1-0 win over then 15th-ranked Duke on Sept. 13. The Blue Devils have since advanced to the NCAA Final Four as they will meet defending national champion Florida State on Friday at the College Cup.
After finishing seventh on the SEC table with a 5-4-2 mark and 17 points in league play this season, The Tigers returned to postseason play at the SEC Tournament in Orange Beach, Alabama, where they scored a pair of 2-1 wins over Kentucky in the first round and SEC runner-up and No. 2 seed Missouri in the quarterfinals before falling 1-0 to Texas A&M in their sixth appearance all-time in the SEC Tournament semifinal.
Their late-season surge and No. 40 ranking in the NCAA’s final Ratings Percentage Index earned the Tigers a trip back to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in team history and first time since 2011.
A sophomore from Scottsdale, Arizona, Baucom proved to be one of the most feared strikers in college soccer this season as she ended the campaign as LSU’s leading scorer with a career-high 15 goals and 32 points on the year while starting 22 games for the Tigers. She was also honored as a First-Team All-SEC performer by the league’s head coaches as the SEC’s second-leading goal scorer in 2015.
Clarke earned NSCAA All-South Region honors for the second time in her three seasons in Baton Rouge as she was also named a third-team all-region selection following her freshman season at LSU in 2013.
A junior from Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, Clarke followed Baucom as the team’s second-leading scorer with seven goals and five assists for 19 points on the season. Like Baucom, Clarke was also selected as an All-SEC performer while earning second-team honors for the second time in her career, despite missing the final four games of the SEC season with an ankle injury.
Gomez-Junco joined fellow senior Alex Arlitt in captaining the Tigers back to the NCAA Tournament while wrapping up her collegiate career as an NSCAA All-South Region performer of the first time as an LSU Tiger.
LSU’s dead ball specialist scored a career-high five goals as the team’s third-leading goal scorer this fall, including three goals directly from free kicks as one of the nation’s most lethal free-kick takers. She also created a total of seven goals with a team-leading seven assists to finish with a career-high 17 points in her two seasons with the Tigers.
2015 NSCAA All-South Region Teams
First Team
Position, Player, Class, School
GK, Julie Eckel, Senior, Tennessee
D, Claire Falknor, Senior, Florida
D, Kala Faulkner, Senior, Auburn
D, Christen Westphal, Senior, Florida
M, Mikaela Harvey, Sophomore, Texas A&M
M, CeCe Kizer, Freshman, Ole Miss
M, Casie Ramsier, Junior, Auburn
F, Jorian Baucom, Sophomore, LSU
F, Simone Charley, Junior, Vanderbilt
F, Savannah Jordan, Junior, Florida
F, Savannah McCaskill, Sophomore, South Carolina
Second Team
Position, Player, Class, School
GK, Sarah Le Beau, Freshman, Auburn
D, Jessica Hiskey, Senior, Ole Miss
D, Candace Johnson, Senior, Missouri
D, Karlie Mueller, Senior, Texas A&M
M, Meggie Dougherty-Howard, Senior, Florida
M, Natalia Gomez-Junco, Senior, LSU
M, Stevi Parker, Senior, South Carolina
M, Courtney Raetzman, Senior, Kentucky
F, Summer Clarke, Junior, LSU
F, Addie Forbus, Junior, Ole Miss
F, Charde Hannah, Sophomore, South Alabama
Third Team
Position, Player, Class, School
GK, Sarah Hay, Junior, South Alabama
D, Susan Ferguson, Senior, Tennessee
D, Jemma Purfield, Freshman, South Alabama
D, Nini Rabsatt-Smith, Senior, South Alabama
M, Suzanne Arafa, Junior, Georgia State
M, Chelsea Drennan, Junior, South Carolina
M, Lydia Simmons, Sophomore, Vanderbilt
F, Raina Johnson, Senior, South Carolina
F, Ashley Nagy, Senior, Georgia State
F, Haley Pounds, Sophomore, Texas A&M
F, Harriet Withers, Sophomore, Murray State