BATON ROUGE — The LSU soccer team officially added two top-calibur recruits to its 2002 roster on Wednesday as head coach George Fotopoulos announced that both Tara Mitnick and Megan Jacqmin chose to play for the resurgent Tigers.
“Megan and Tara are both extremely talented soccer players,” said Fotopoulos. “They each have the capabilities to make an immediate impact on our program and they will be valuable assets for us in years to come. I’m very proud to have both of them on our team and the other players are happy that they were able to join us.”
Mitnick, a native of Lilburn, Ga., is the younger sister of current Tiger and three-time, Second Team Southeastern Conference defender Ashley Mitnick.
The younger Mitnick is also a proven athlete and will be a great addition to the LSU soccer program.
While attending Shiloh High School, Mitnick led her team to numerous championships including the 1999 and 2000 Georgia State Cup titles, the 1999 Atlanta Cup and the 1999 Surf Cup. She was named the 2000 Gwinnett Post’s Soccer Player of the Year and earned All-County awards in both 1999 and 2000. Mitnick was also named her high school’s Most Valuable Player in 2000, while being named the 1999 scholar athlete.
Jacqmin, a native of Dallas, Texas, will join the LSU soccer team this fall after serving as both the team captain and starting goalkeeper for the nationally ranked Solar Soccer Club for the past four years. She has led the team to over 20 tournament titles and has been named to the Texas All-State team four times.
The talented goaltender has also garnered numerous prestigious honors for her work in the classroom. In high school, Jacqmin was an Honor Graduate, a member of the National Honor Society, a Presidential Scholar and was recently awarded an Academic Tuition Scholarship for four years to attend LSU.
“Not only are both of these girls tremendous athletes,” Fotopoulos said. “But they are also brilliant scholars and very bright young women. They definitely epitomize the type of players that we want to have on our soccer team.”
The LSU soccer team will open its 2002 season on Aug. 31, as the Tigers travel to Nacogdoches, Texas, for a non-conference contest against Stephen F. Austin at 1 p.m.