BATON ROUGE – The LSU Soccer team will break from Southeastern Conference play Sunday afternoon when it welcomes the No. 7-ranked UCF Knights to Baton Rouge for its final non-conference match of the season as the two sides are set to kick off at Noon CT at the LSU Soccer Stadium.
Sunday is Mike’s Kids Club Day at the LSU Soccer Stadium as members are invited to take part in an on-field activity at halftime as part of the first Mike’s Kids Club event of the 2017-18 athletic season.
LSU (8-4-2) and UCF (9-1-1) were originally scheduled to meet at the UCF Soccer Complex in Orlando back on Sept. 8 before the match was postponed with Hurricane Irma making landfall in South Florida. On Sept. 22 it was announced the match would be moved to Baton Rouge and played on Sunday afternoon.
The Tigers, ranked No. 27 in the NCAA’s latest Ratings Percentage Index, can strengthen their NCAA Tournament resume with a win as the Knights arrive in Baton Rouge ranked No. 7 in the RPI this week.
UCF is also the No. 8-ranked team nationally in this week’s United Soccer Coaches Top 25 poll published on Tuesday, while also owning a No. 9 national ranking in the TopDrawerSoccer.com Top 25 and No. 17 ranking in the latest Soccer America Top 25 poll also released earlier this week.
The Tigers and Knights have only met once before on the soccer pitch as the sides played to a scoreless draw in their inaugural meeting held Sept. 4, 2009, at a tournament at the University of South Florida.
UCF is certainly one of the nation’s top teams this season with a 2-1 home win over No. 4-ranked North Carolina back on Aug. 25 being the highlight its campaign to-date. The Knights feature a potent attack going forward and a stingy defense at the back while outscoring their opponents by a 31-6 margin in 11 matches this season.
Senior striker Morgan Ferrara is the top scorer in the American Athletic Conference this season with 11 goals to also tie for the No. 10 spot on the NCAA’s scoring chart in 2017. Senior Kayla Adamek follows as the club’s second-leading scorer with seven goals on the season, while freshman forward Dina Orschmann has chipped in with five goals to lead the UCF attack this fall.
Fans unable to attend the match can follow Sunday’s action 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.
After playing host to UCF on Sunday afternoon, the Tigers wrap up their three-game homestand next Thursday night when they play host to No. 16-ranked Texas A&M with kickoff scheduled for 6 p.m. CT at the LSU Soccer Stadium. The match is set to air to a nationally-televised audience on the SEC Network.