BATON ROUGE –- The LSU Soccer team (1-1-0) fell in their 2024 home opener against Arizona State (2-0-2) by a score of 5-2 on Sunday night in the LSU Soccer Stadium.
“Obviously, we’re incredibly disappointed. It’s not the way we wanted to open our season at home,” said LSU Head Coach Sian Hudson. “I thought it was a really positive start, getting a goal in the first couple minutes, but we just had a lapse of concentration and let them get back into the game.”
The Tigers started the match on the right foot and struck first just under the three minute mark, but the Sun Devils continued to battle back the full 90 minutes. Arizona State’s Cameron Valladares recorded two goals and two assists. For LSU, Ida Hermansdottir and Jazmin Ferguson both shined as they found their names on the scoresheet.
Defender Sydney Cheesman claimed the assists on both of LSU’s goals for the night.
“We created a lot of chances from set pieces, and despite the result, there is still a lot of promise right now in terms of ability to score goals, but priority number one is to tighten up defensively and make sure we do not concede at that level.”
LSU wasted no time after kick-off to get amongst the goals. The Tigers won a corner just three minutes into the match, and Cheesman placed a perfect cross into the box that was met by midfielder Hermansdottir, who guided the ball into the back of the net with a perfect header to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
A minute later, Arizona State equalized the match via a goal from forward Cameron Valladares.
In the 18th minute of the match, the Tigers once again capitalized from a set piece to gain the advantage, as Ferguson blasted a pass from Cheesman into the back of the net, which was good for Ferguson’s second goal of the season and Cheesman’s second assist of the match.
Ferguson now owns as many goals as she’s played at LSU.
Arizona State once again found an equalizer in the 25th minute, as a clearance from LSU’s Ferguson caught goalkeeper Audur Scheving off guard and resulted in an own goal to make the score 2-2, ending the first half.
The Sun Devils started off the second half hot with two quickfire goals. Valladares recorded her second goal of the evening in the 52nd minute of the match off an assist from Kiera Blundell to make the score 3-2. Arizona State extended their lead five minutes later and made it a 4-2 game off of a goal from Enasia Colon that was assisted by Valladares.
In the 64th minute, Enasia Colon once again found the back of the net to make the score 5-2. The goal was assisted by Valladares and Keri Matthews.
Scheving, Cheesman and Caley Swierenga played the full 90 minutes for the Tigers on Sunday. Scheving finished the night with two saves.
Seven Tigers tallied a shot on goal as LSU tried to fight back in their home opener. Danielle Shannon, Sage Glover, Mollie Baker, Amy Smith and Ava Galligan all gave efforts at the Arizona State’s keeper, along with Ferguson and Hermannsdottir. Baker took a team high seven shots in total.
The Tigers couldn’t find another chance to extend their scoring on the night, ultimately falling to the Sun Devils in a battle in Baton Rouge.
LSU will return to the pitch on Thursday, August 29th, to take on UMass Lowell on the road. The game is slated to start at 5 p.m. CT and will be broadcasted live on ESPN+. Live stats will be available on lsusports.net.
“As we look ahead to our Boston trip, we are really excited to get on the road and head up to the Northeast. We have two really important games against UMass Lowell and Old Dominion.”
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