BATON ROUGE – The LSU Soccer team has made the trip to College Station, Texas, on the eve of Southeastern Conference play as the Tigers will put their three-match road winning streak on the line at Ellie Field on Sunday night when they go up against 11th-ranked Texas A&M with kickoff set for 6 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.
The Tigers (4-3) make their season debut on the SEC Network as fans can also watch the match on the SEC Network+ on ESPN3.com and the WatchESPN app available on all mobile and tablet devices.
Fans can also follow all the action from 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 Sunday’s match.
Sunday’s match marks the end of a four-game road swing for LSU as the visitors arrive in College Station riding an impressive three-game winning streak, including a 3-0 win at Indiana on Sept. 2, a 2-1 win at reigning Big East Champion Butler last Sunday afternoon and a 1-0 shutout at Western Kentucky on Thursday night. The Tigers are perfect 4-0 in true road matches this season.
Senior forward Delaney Sheehan and redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Caroline Brockmeier provided the heroics in Thursday’s win at Western Kentucky as Sheehan netted her second goal of the season on six minutes and Brockmeier saved all four shots on target she faced for her third clean sheet of the season. Sheehan’s goal from Marlena Cutura‘s corner kick was her first match-winner as an LSU Tiger.
First-Team All-SEC striker Jorian Baucom continues to lead the LSU attack with four goals, while senior Summer Clarke, junior Jordane Carvery and freshman Caitlin Cantrill are also off the mark this season.
“I’m really proud of our players by the way they have responded to a difficult start to the season, and we hope to carry that momentum with us into the start of SEC play,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee. “It’s already an exciting opening weekend in the SEC, and we look forward to the challenge ahead of us tomorrow night.”
The Aggies enter Sunday’s SEC opener against the Tigers ranked as high as No. 11 nationally in this week’s National Soccer Coaches Association of America Top 25 poll. They are also ranked No. 15 nationally in the latest Soccer America Women’s Top 25 and No. 18 nationally in the latest TopDrawerSoccer.com Top 25 rankings also released earlier this week.
Junior forward Haley Pounds leads the Aggie attack with four goals this season, while Texas A&M owns the joint top defensive record among SEC teams this season with just three goals allowed in its six matches.
The Tigers are in search of their first win in the series as Texas A&M owns a 5-0-1 advantage in six previous meetings between the two sides on the soccer pitch. Texas A&M was a narrow 1-0 winner in the last match in the series in the SEC Tournament Semifinals last November after the two teams did not face one another in the 2015 regular season.
Clarke scored a brace with two goals in a 3-2 defeat for LSU on the team’s last trip to College Station on Halloween Night in 2013. That capped a 10-goal freshman season for Clarke as she earned her first of two Second-Team All-SEC honors in her Tiger career.
After opening up SEC play on the road at Texas A&M on Sunday night, the Tigers will return home to Baton Rouge on Friday as they welcome the Ole Miss Rebels for their SEC home opener that is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. CT at the LSU Soccer Stadium. LSU’s home matches against Ole Miss on Friday and Lamar next Sunday, Sept. 18, are both available to watch online on the SEC Network+.