BATON ROUGE – Three valuable points toward postseason qualification will be on the line Sunday afternoon when the LSU Soccer team makes the trip to the Turner Soccer Complex in Athens, Georgia, to face the homestanding Georgia Bulldogs in a Southeastern Conference clash that is set to kick off at 1 p.m. CT.
The Tigers (6-8, 1-5 SEC) will look to snap a four-game losing streak in SEC play in Sunday’s match, while the Bulldogs (3-9-1, 0-6) hope to end a five-game skid of their own with their first SEC win of 2016.
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. There will be no SEC Network+ live streaming of the match.
LSU and Georgia played one of the most exciting contests on the SEC Network on Sept. 17 of last season when the Tigers came from 3-1 down in the first half to score three unanswered goals and claim a 4-3 win at the LSU Soccer Stadium in Baton Rouge. The win pulled LSU’s record to 6-9-2 in 17 matches played all-time against Georgia.
The Bulldogs scored three goals in an 18-minute stretch after LSU’s All-SEC striker Summer Clarke opened the scoring just six minutes into the game. Debbie Hahn pulled the Tigers to within 3-2 at halftime with a goal in the 37th minute before senior team captain Natalia Gomez-Junco scored a brace with goals in the 69th and 79th minutes to complete the comeback. Gomez-Junco’s game-tying free kick in the 69th minute even featured on ESPN’s SportsCenter later that night at No. 8 on the “Top Plays” segment.
The Tigers are looking to get back on track and take a step toward SEC Tournament qualification in Athens where they have won just once in their previous eight trips to the Turner Soccer Complex.
LSU picked up its first and only win in the series in Athens with a 2-1 win on Oct. 5, 2008, and enters Sunday’s match with a 1-6-1 record all-time in matches played at the University of Georgia. The Bulldogs claimed a 2-0 win on their home field the last time the sides met in Athens on Oct. 19, 2014. However, the Tigers have enjoyed much of the success in the series since Brian Lee‘s appointment in 2005 with a 5-4-2 mark in 11 matches played between the two sides in 11-plus seasons.
The Bulldogs are sure to lean on the goal-scoring prowess of Marion Crowder to break their five-game losing skid and pick up their first SEC win of the season as their senior striker has netted five of the team’s 12 goals on the season. Senior forward Lauren Tanner and junior forward Kelsey Killeen have also chipped in with two goals apiece to lead the Georgia attack.
Junior forward Nicole Howard got off the mark with her first goal as an LSU Tiger in the team’s 3-1 defeat to Tennessee in Baton Rouge on Thursday night. Howard is seventh different Tiger to find the scoresheet in the 2016 season as junior First-Team All-SEC striker Jorian Baucom continues to lead the way with nine of the team’s 18 goals on the year.
Senior Delaney Sheehan follows Baucom with three goals, while senior Summer Clarke has netted twice and juniors Jordane Carvery and Zoe Higgins and freshman Caitlin Cantrill have each scored once this season.
The Tigers will be back on the road in SEC play next weekend with their trip to Starkville, Mississippi, on Friday, Oct. 14, as they square off against the Mississippi State Bulldogs in a match that is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. CT on the SEC Network+. They end the regular season with three-straight home games in Baton Rouge against Auburn on Oct. 20, Alabama on Oct. 23 and Arkansas on Oct. 27.