BATON ROUGE – The LSU Soccer team (7-4-1, 2-2-0 SEC) fell to the Florida Gators (5-3-3, 1-2-1) by a score of 4-0 on Friday night at the LSU Soccer Stadium.
Florida opened the scoring on the night in the 16th minute when Julianne Leskauskas pounced on a goalkeeping error and scored on an open net. It became 2-0 in the 22nd minute when Megan Hinnenkamp’s headed effort found the back of the net. The lead was extended to three in the 68th minute when Anna DeLeon’s back post header from eight yards out found the back of the net. The final goal of the night came in the 74th minute when Hinnenkamp doubled her tally with a powerful shot from outside the box.
“I am disappointed at the result,” head coach Sian Hudson said. “From start to finish, Florida was hungrier and the better team tonight. Our players have to learn a harsh lesson that we have to show up every single day, no matter what we’ve done in recent weeks. Every single team in the SEC is capable of beating anybody on any given day.”
After a quiet ten minutes to start, end-to-end action brought the match to life. Sage Glover found herself on the end of a through ball from Mollie Baker and surged into the box, where she hit a powerful shot from 16 yards out that hit the underside of the crossbar, but did not cross the line. Seconds later, Florida charged on the counter and found Hinnenkamp in the box. The shot from the Florida Gator was saved by a charging Mollee Swift, who did well to come off her line and keep the scoreline even.
The deadlock was broken in the 16th minute. Swift’s attempt at a clearance was mis-hit, giving Leskauskas the chance to pounce on the loose ball and shoot into the open net from 15 yards out.
Five minutes later, Florida took a 2-0 lead. Madison Young sent a free-kick into the box and found the head of Hinnenkamp, who headed it with the back of her head from seven yards out and into the back of the goal.
Swift finished the first half with five saves and kept the Tigers in reach as they went into the break down 2-0.
The second half saw the Tigers play with high pressure and search for a goal to get back in it, but were not able to find a goal. The Gators took a 3-0 lead in the 68th minute. Maddy Pirello sent a cross inside the box to the back post and found DeLeon, who headed the ball from eight yards out and into the back of the net.
Florida made it 4-0 on the night in the 74th minute. Florida cleared a free kick from their box and found Hinnenkamp, who carried the ball the entire pitch on a solo run and thumped a shot from 25 yards out into the top-right corner. The goal was the final one of the night and the match ended 4-0 to the visiting Gators.
Florida outshot LSU by a score of 16-6 and narrowly claimed the possession battle by a margin of 53% to the Tigers’ 47%.
LSU returns to action on Thursday, Oct. 5 when they take on South Carolina in Columbia at 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network+.