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Soccer Hosts First Home Match on Sunday

by Aaron Hyder | Assistant Communications Director
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Soccer Hosts First Home Match on Sunday

Baton Rouge, La. –  LSU soccer (0-1-0) will host its first home match of the 2020 season on Sunday as they welcome the Ole Miss Rebels (0-1-0) to Baton Rouge. First kick is set for 1 p.m. CT and the match will be televised on the SEC Network.

Free Admission | Live Stats | TV: SEC Network | Live Stream

LSU Soccer Stadium Procedures & Guidelines

Capacity for LSU home matches this fall will be at 450 fans, which is 25 percent of the seating capacity at LSU Soccer Stadium. Admission is free and gates will open one hour prior to the start of the game. Fans will be required to wear face masks in order to attend matches, tailgating will be prohibited and physical distancing will be mandatory. Pods groups of two, four, six, eight, and 12 will be marked off by colored tape for proper distancing. All the protocols for Sunday’s home match can be viewed at lsusports.net.

Series History – Ole Miss

This will be the 27th meeting between LSU and Ole Miss and the all-time series record is split right down the middle with 11 wins for LSU, 11 wins for Ole Miss and four draws. LSU is 6-4-2 all-time against Ole Miss at home and has won the last two contests in Baton Rouge – a 3-1 win in 2018 and a 3-0 triumph in 2016.

Tigers at LSU Soccer Stadium

2020 marks the 25th season of LSU hosting soccer matches at LSU Soccer Stadium. LSU’s record at LSU Soccer Stadium is 125-78-29 dating back to the 1996 season. The LSU soccer program played its first season in 1995 at the University High field adjacent to the football practice facility and went 9-2-1 at home that season. LSU owns a home record of 15-10-4 over the past three seasons.

Last Time Out

LSU dropped its season opener to the SEC preseason favorite to win the league, the Arkansas Razorbacks, by a tally of 2-0. The Tigers had five players make their LSU debut and had a number of opportunities to score in a promising effort. LSU registered three shots on goal plus another two off the post and could have easily scored three times in the match. Maddie Moreau, Chiara Ritchie-Williams, Maya Gordon, and Mollee Swift played the full 90; it was Swift’s first-career start in goal for the Tigers. Swift was joined by other first-time starters Taylor Dobles and Wasila Diwura-Soale. Swift made seven saves in her debut and shots on goal were registered by Tinaya Alexander (two) and Dobles (one).

The Captains

Chiara Ritchie-Williams and Maddie Moreau are serving as team captains this fall. Ritchie-Williams is the most experienced player on the squad and she is showing how valuable she is with a position change this season to the midfield. In her first three seasons, Ritchie-Williams anchored the backline for LSU at the centerback position, but for her senior season she has moved up to the midfield and will play a major role in LSU’s success. She has played in 61 career matches, starting 60 of those, and logged a total of 5,638 minutes. Moreau has played at leftback during her two seasons at LSU. She’s scored one career goal and has played a total of 1,779 minutes out of possible 1,780 minutes in 19 career matches.

The Roster

LSU’s roster is made up of 16 returners from the 2019 season, and 10 newcomers. The Tigers have four seniors, nine juniors, five sophomores, and eight freshmen. LSU has six players on the roster from Louisiana, and a total of five internationals. The rest of the roster is comprised from around the country with four each from Florida and Colorado, two from Texas, and one each from Alabama, Nebraska, North Carolina, Minnesota, and New Jersey.

The Hudson Profile

Sian Hudson enters the 2020 season as the seventh head coach in LSU history. She comes to LSU after coaching at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs where she accumulated a record of 52-10-4 in three seasons from 2017-19. Her win totals in each of the three seasons – 17 in 2017, 16 in 2018, and 19 in 2019 – were the three winningest seasons in program history. She led UCCS to the NCAA Division II Tournament in each of those three seasons which included a run to the national semifinals in 2017.

Prior to UCCS, she spent two seasons as an assistant at Colorado College in Colorado Springs as well as coaching in the W-League. As the head skipper in 2015, she led the Colorado Pride to the conference title and she had four players drafted into the National Women’s Soccer League during her time with the Pride.

SEC History

The Tigers have an all-time record of 88-133-32 in SEC regular season play. LSU won its first ever SEC Tournament title in 2018 against Arkansas. The Tigers captured four SEC West regular season titles (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011) before the league was merged into one group as a whole; in 2008, 2009, and 2011 the Tigers were SEC runners-up overall. The 2009 and 2011 clubs registered what is still a program record of eight wins in conference play. The last time LSU played only eight regular season conference matches was in 2002.

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