BATON ROUGE – Thursday’s SEC clash between LSU and No. 8-ranked South Carolina at Stone Stadium in Columbia features two of the league’s hottest programs as the Tigers arrive as winners of five of their last six outings while the Gamecocks are unbeaten in nine matches this season and winners of eight matches on the bounce.
The match will be streamed live on the SEC Network+ beginning at 6 p.m. CT as fans can watch the Tigers (6-4, 1-1 SEC) and Gamecocks (8-0-1, 2-0) online at ESPN3.com and using the WatchESPN app.
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 Thursday’s match.
LSU has certainly turned around its fortunes after winning just one of its first four matches of the season as the Tigers have now won five of their last six heading into Thursday’s match at South Carolina. That includes a home sweep in Baton Rouge last weekend when they powered past Ole Miss by a 3-0 margin for their first SEC win of the season last Friday night before a 4-0 win over Lamar on Sunday afternoon.
Junior All-SEC striker Jorian Baucom has been at the center of the Tigers’ turnaround as she has scored eight of her SEC-leading nine goals this season in the last six matches. She scored five of the team’s seven goals in its two home matches last weekend en route to being named to the TopDrawerSoccer.com Women’s College Team of the Week on Tuesday.
Baucom converted two penalty kicks against Ole Miss, including the game-winning spot kick in the 30th minute of the first half, before scoring her first career hat trick against Lamar in her last appearance on Sunday.
Junior midfielder Zoe Higgins and senior forward Delaney Sheehan also found the scoresheet last weekend as Higgins scored her first goal as a Tiger in the 77th minute to cap the scoring against the Rebels and Sheehan netted the game-winning goal in the 11th minute against the Cardinals. Sheehan follows Baucom as LSU’s second-leading goal scorer this season with three goals on the campaign.
Thursday’s match actually features the SEC’s top two goal scorers this season as the Gamecocks are led by the nine goals scored by All-SEC striker Savannah McCaskill. Baucom and McCaskill are tied atop the SEC’s goal-scoring charts this season and are tied with one another as the NCAA’s No. 2-ranked scorers midway through the season.
The Gamecocks are ranked as high as No. 8 nationally this week in the latest Top 25 polls released Tuesday by both the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and Soccer America. South Carolina also slots into the No. 20 position in the latest TopDrawerSoccer.com Women’s Top 25 also released Tuesday.
The Tigers look to snap a seven-match winless streak against the Gamecocks on Thursday as they are 0-4-3 in their last seven meetings after picking up their last win by a 1-0 margin against 10th-ranked South Carolina in Baton Rouge on Oct. 25, 2009. LSU trails 2-10-6 in 18 previous meetings between the two sides, including a 1-7-1 record in nine matches played at Stone Stadium.
Thursday’s match will also be 21 years to the day since LSU’s one and only win in Columbia when the Tigers were 1-0 winners in the inaugural meeting between the two teams on Sept. 22, 1995.
After battling the No. 8-ranked Gamecocks in Columbia on Thursday night, the Tigers will be back on the SEC Network+ on Sunday afternoon with a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, where they face Vanderbilt with kickoff set for 1 p.m. CT. They will then return home next weekend to play host to No. 9-ranked Florida on Friday, Sept. 30, at 7 p.m.