BATON ROUGE – Fresh off a weekend sweep of Indiana and Butler at the Hoosier Challenge Cup last weekend, the LSU Tigers take their momentum to Bowling Green, Kentucky, on Thursday night as they continue their four-game road swing at Western Kentucky with the match set to kick off at 7 p.m. CT at the WKU Soccer Complex.
The Tigers (3-3) found their form in the attack last weekend while nearly tripling their goal total for the season in a 3-0 shutout of Indiana last Friday afternoon before a 2-1 win over Butler on Sunday.
Senior striker Summer Clarke, junior forward Jorian Baucom and junior defender Jordane Carvery were each named to the Hoosier Challenge Cup All-Tournament Team for their outstanding performance in pacing the Tigers to the team title with six points for the weekend. Reigning Big East Champion Butler and SMU were runners-up on three points with one win apiece.
Baucom was even honored Tuesday for her three-goal performance last weekend as one of 11 players nationwide selected to the TopDrawerSoccer.com Women’s College Team of the Week.
Baucom proved to be a catalyst in LSU’s road sweep last weekend as she scored two goals against Indiana, including the game-winner in the 34th minute, at Bill Armstrong Stadium in Bloomington before poking home a second winning goal on the weekend in the 88th minute against Butler at Varsity Field in Indianapolis to help the Tigers take home the tournament title.
Baucom has now scored a team-leading four goals on the season with each of her four scores coming in LSU’s last three matches as she opened her three-match scoring streak against Colgate last Sunday, Aug. 28. With her performance this weekend, Baucom overtook Clarke as LSU’s active career scoring leader with 27 goals on her 48 career appearances for the Tigers. Clarke follows closely behind with 25 goals scored as an LSU Tiger, including her first of the season in the 27th minute at Butler on Sunday.
Freshman midfielder Caitlin Cantrill is also off the mark this season after scoring her first career goal in the 44th minute of Friday’s victory at Indiana as she gave the Tigers a comfortable 2-0 lead before halftime.
Like LSU, Western Kentucky (3-2) enters Thursday’s match on the back of a weekend sweep while earning a 2-1 extra time win over Austin Peay last Friday night before a 4-0 victory over Georgia State on its home field at the WKU Soccer Complex on Sunday afternoon. The Lady Toppers are led in the attack by freshman forward Chandler Backes, who has scored five of her team’s 15 goals to this point of her rookie season.
The Tigers and Lady Toppers renew their series after LSU scored a decisive 4-1 win at the LSU Soccer Stadium in Baton Rouge in the inaugural meeting between the two sides on Aug. 28 of last season.
Fans can follow all the action during each match during the 2016 season 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. Fans are also invited to join in the team’s live in-game chat on Facebook throughout Friday’s match.
After facing Western Kentucky on Thursday night, the Tigers will wrap up their four-game road swing on Sunday night as they head to College Station, Texas, to face 11th-ranked Texas A&M in their SEC opener slated to kick off at 6 p.m. CT at Ellis Field. Sunday’s match also marks LSU’s debut on the SEC Network this season as the match will be broadcast to a nationally-televised audience.