BATON ROUGE — A total of eight members of the LSU soccer program are set to compete with their respective club teams at the 2007 U.S. Youth Soccer Southern Regional Championships beginning Friday at the South Lakes Complex in Oklahoma City.
LSU’s athletes are representing five premier club teams from across the South in the Under-19 division during the week-long event, which is part of the USYS National Championship Series.
Teams will battle for the right to represent Region III at the 2007 USYS National Championships to be held in Frisco, Texas, from July 25-27. Round robin play is set to begin Friday followed by the quarterfinals on Monday, the semifinals on Tuesday and the tournament finals on Wednesday.
Leading LSU’s contingent at this year’s regional championships is sophomore Michelle Makasini, who led her Dallas Texans Red 88 North club team to the USYS regional and national championships in the U-18 division a year ago. The Euless, Texas, native looks to repeat that success at the U-19 level this year.
Fellow sophomores Melissa Clarke, Katherine Lagow, Brittany Lowe and Lindsay Lum will challenge Makasini and the Dallas Texans for club supremacy this year as they are set to compete as members of Texas-based TSC Challenge.
Three other Tigers will also see action at the USYS Southern Regional Championships this week as sophomore Amanda Carreno competes in her home state as a member of Tulsa Soccer Club, while sophomore Malorie Rutledge joins Atlanta’s Concorde Fire and sophomore Kennedy Richards competes for the Baton Rouge Soccer Club.