BATON ROUGE – The LSU Soccer team hits the homestretch of the 2017 regular season with its final two Southeastern Conference matches coming in the next five days as the Tigers first head to Auburn, Alabama, on Sunday afternoon for a match with the Auburn Tigers scheduled to kick off at 5 p.m. CT on ESPNU.
LSU (8-6-2, 1-5-2 SEC) features on national television for the second-straight match following a hard-fought 1-0 home defeat on Thursday night to No. 11-ranked Texas A&M shown live on the SEC Network.
Points are crucial for the Tigers as they enter Sunday’s match two points outside of SEC Tournament qualification with just two matches to play. Auburn is unbeaten in its last three SEC matches while falling just once in its last nine outings since a home win over High Point back on Sept. 8.
While not featuring in the national polls this week, Auburn (7-4-4, 4-1-3) is ranked No. 18 in the NCAA’s all-important Ratings Percentage Index that is the primary rating system used by the selection committee to hand out at-large bids to the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Tournament. LSU remains among the nation’s top teams in the RPI with a No. 41 ranking this week.
LSU looks to turn the tables against its Tiger counterparts as Auburn rides a seven-game win streak in the series since 2011 into Sunday’s match on The Plains. In what has proven to be a series of streaks, LSU preceded Auburn’s current winning run with a five-match unbeaten run of its own with a 4-0-1 mark in the series from 2007-10.
Auburn is led in the attack by First-Team All-SEC forward Kristen Dodson, who leads the team with eight goals and 19 points while also providing three assists for her teammates in her senior season to rank as the sixth-best scorer in the SEC this season. Senior midfielder Courtney Schell follows with four goals to match her career-high, while sophomore forward Bri Folds has chipped in with three goals on the campaign.
Sunday’s match will also stream live on the SEC Network+ through ESPN3.com as fans can also watch the Tigers in action using the WatchESPN app available on all smartphone and tablet devices.
Fans wanting to follow Sunday’s contest at Auburn can also receive live updates by following @LSUSoccer on both 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 battling Auburn on The Plains on Sunday afternoon, the Tigers will close out their regular season with a trip to Columbia, Missouri, on Thursday to square off against the Missouri Tigers at 6:30 p.m. CDT on the SEC Network+. The SEC Tournament returns to the Orange Beach Sportsplex in Orange Beach, Alabama, with the event running Oct. 30-Nov. 5.