BATON ROUGE – The LSU Soccer Team (5-3-1, 0-1-0 SEC) will host Ole Miss (5-5, 0-1-0 SEC) for their SEC home opener on Sunday, September 22 at 6 p.m. CT.
“We had a spirited performance in our conference opener and are feeling disappointed to have come away empty handed. Now, we’re really excited to get back home in front of our fans and bounce back from it,” said head coach Sian Hudson. “We had a great performance against Ole Miss in the spring, so we’re just looking to utilize our grittiness and continue to build on the work that we’ve put in on the defensive side of the ball. We want to put on a show for Tiger nation and we hope to see more fans pack the stands after a big football game!”
The competition between the Tigers and the Rebels will be streamed on SECN+. The watch link and live stats link can be found here.
Promotions
Sunday night’s match will be the alumni game as the LSU Soccer program will welcome back alumni from all years to the pitch.
The first 250 fans to arrive at the stadium will receive a free LSU Soccer popsocket phone wallet! Gates to the soccer stadium will open at 5 p.m. CT.
All match-by-match promotions for the year can be found here.
The Opponent
The Tigers will look to even the all-time series record against the Rebels on Sunday, currently holding a record of 13-14-5. The last time the two teams met was in 2023, when Ole Miss took the match with a 1-0 victory in Oxford.
Ten different Rebels have scored a goal so far this season: Kayla Keefer (4), Kelly Brady (2), Evie Ewing, Sarah Granno, Gili Johnson, Bella Leonard, Astrid Nyquist, Kate Smith, Grace Freeman, and Aubrey Mister each have one.
In four of the five wins this season, the Rebels have generated 15 or more shots: Southern (33), Georgia State (15), McNeese (22), and at Samford (16).
Ole Miss fell to Tennessee in their opening SEC match on Thursday and will also be looking to bounce back. The Rebels have tallied 15 goals this year with 11 assists, 142 shots and 57 on goal.
Tiger Notables
LSU enters Sunday’s conference match with an overall record of 5-3-1 (0-1-0 SEC) after falling in their conference opener to No. 3 Arkansas. The Tigers have marked wins over South Alabama (W, 3-0), UMass Lowell (W, 3-0), Old Dominion (2-1), UL-Lafayette (3-1) and San Francisco (4-1), a draw against Utah (T, 1-1) and losses to Arizona State (L, 5-2), UC Davis (L, 3-4) and Arkansas (L, 0-1).
LSU has scored 21 goals so far this year as Ida Hermannsdottir, Mollie Baker, Jazmin Ferguson, Angelina Thoreson, Ava Galligan, Andrea Iljkic, Amy Smith, Kelsey Major, Sage Glover, Gabbi Ceballos and Danielle Shannon have found themselves on the scoresheet.
On that same note, LSU has seen 11 different goal scorers through the regular season so far, with four players scoring the firsts of their career. Ferguson, Ceballos , Iljkic and Shannon have all scored their first career goals at LSU this season.
Hermannsdottir leads the team with six goals on the year, while Ava Galligan follows with three.
The Tigers have recorded 11 assists so far this year, with junior Sydney Cheesman leading the way. The UNC transfer has been pivotal in set pieces for LSU, recording a team high four assists on the year.
Overall, LSU has taken 161 shots on the year, with 73 of those being on target. Galligan leads the way with 26 shot attempts, while Baker, Hermannsdottir, Glover, Shannon and Smith have all tallied 10 or more shots on the year. Hermannsdottir leads the team with shots on target with 13.
Galligan, Hermannsdottir and Cheesman all rank amongst the top 10 players in the SEC in shots, goals and assists, respectively. Scheving’s eight saves also place in the top-10. Overall, LSU sits in the top-10 in the SEC in shots, goals and assists.
The Tigers have outshot their opponents in all but three matches, recording roughly 18 shots per game compared to 8 from their opponents.
Scheving, the sophomore from Iceland who is in her first year with the Tigers, has started in between the posts for the Tigers in every match thus far. She has recorded 22 saves and two shutouts.
Hermannsdottir, Ferguson, Cheesman, Baker, Glover, Shannon, Scheving and Caley Swierenga are the only players to start in every match for LSU this year.
Last Time On The Pitch
The Tigers dropped their SEC opening match to No. 3 Arkansas by a score of 1-0 last Thursday night on Razorback Field.
The lone goal of the night came in the 71st minute when Bella Field scored from eight yards out. Lily Boydstun played a long through ball to the right side of the box, where Ava Tankersley sent a ground cross to Field that rolled into the back of the net.
The match opened with neither side able to create chances in their attacking half. The first chance of the night came in the 21st minute when Avery Wren sent a powerful shot on goal from 15 yards out that was parried away by a diving Audur Scheving.
Scheving picked up three more saves before the half ended in the 35th, 41st and 44th minutes to help keep the Razorbacks goalless at the half. The Tigers had one shot on frame in the first half; a shot in the 43rd minute by forward Amy Smith that was saved by Arkansas goalkeeper Keegan Smith.
The second half opened the same as the first with neither team able to create quality chances to start it. Defender Sydney Cheeseman had a sail off target in the 54th minute and midfielder Ava Galligan had a shot in the attack third blocked in the 59th minute.
The breakthrough came for the hosts in the 71st minute. Boydstun pinged a long ball to the right wing that found Tankersley. Tanskersley sent a ball into the box and found Field, who had space and took one touch before slotting the ball into the bottom left corner.
LSU chased for an equalizer in the final 19 minutes of the match. Keegan Smith was called into action in the 77th minute as she saved a shot on goal from Smith before the Arkansas goalkeeper once again denied the LSU attacker in the 86th minute. Those two shots on goal were the last two chances of the night from the Tigers, who could not find the tying goal they were looking for.
The Razorbacks outshot the Tigers by a margin of 12-9, with Arkansas having six shots on goal against LSU’s three. Scheving finished the night with five saves, taking her season total to 21.
Preseason Watchlist
Five Tigers on the LSU Soccer squad were named to the 2024 SEC Soccer Preseason Watchlist. A total of 88 student-athletes were named to this year’s watchlist, as Mollie Baker, Jazmin Ferguson, Ida Hermannsdóttir, Ava Galligan and Sydney Cheesman are the Tigers to keep an eye on this year.
Baker, Hermannsdottir and Galligan all return to LSU this year, while Ferguson and Cheesman transferred to the team this spring and enter their first season in the Purple and Gold.
A captain and leader on this year’s LSU squad, Baker enters her final season with the Tigers in 2024. The Gilbert, Arizona native was the only player to appear and start in all 20 matches for the Tigers last year. The forward tallied three goals, five assists, and 1,551 minutes on the pitch while earning United Soccer Coaches All-Southeast Region Third Team honors in 2023.
A native of Reykjivic, Iceland, Hermannsdottir continues to be one of the top midfielders to watch in the nation. She enters year three at LSU with 11 goals, four assists and 2,366 minutes in her career.
Galligan, a dual forward/midfielder out of Ashburn, Virginia, enters her second year with the Tigers after a breakout debut season in 2023. She recorded four goals, five assists and played in all 20 matches in her freshman season.
Ferguson joined the squad from East Carolina University, where she spent two seasons and was the 2023 American Athletic Conference Co-Defensive Player of the Year. A native of Conyers, Georgia, she will serve as a vice captain on the squad as she enters her junior season this upcoming fall. United Soccer Coaches named her a defender to watch in 2024.
Cheesman is a defender out of Lafayette, Colorado, who transferred to LSU from the University of North Carolina, where she tallied 175 minutes on the pitch in her nine games played and helped lead the Tar Heels to two NCAA Tournament appearances. The defender was rated four stars by Top Drawer Soccer in the recruiting rankings in 2022 prior to starting her collegiate career at UNC.
The Coaching Staff
Hudson enters her fifth season with the Tigers this year. Since beginning her tenure at LSU in 2019, she has propelled the program to unprecedented success alongside Associate Head Coach Seb Furness, who joined the coaching staff that same year.
Joining them on staff is Assistant Coaches Antony Blackburn and Conor Cable. Blackburn is a native of Derby, England, who initially joined the Tigers in Fall 2023 as an analyst. He will primarily assist with session planning and delivery, individual development plans, and opposition preparation. Prior to LSU, Blackburn served as Head Coach of Valencia C.F. U14’s (Valencia, Spain), one of the most prestigious academies in the world of professional soccer.
Cable joins the Tigers from Lake Erie College, where he spent five years helping lead the storm to new heights. Cable will primarily lead the LSU goalkeeping unit and oversee LSU Soccer community service and outreach events.
The Spalding, England native brings a wealth of experience to Baton Rouge from both his previous work with the Lake Erie goalkeeping unit and his own professional experiences. Cable came through the professional system in England, playing for a variety of Premier League and Championship Clubs including Norwich City and Cardiff City, and spent his youth academy days at Bristol City Football Club.
Under Hudson’s leadership, the LSU Tigers achieved significant milestones during the 2023 season, marking their ninth NCAA Tournament appearance and third consecutive postseason showing—the most straight appearances by a coach in LSU history. Notably, Hudson secured her first LSU NCAA Tournament victory with a first-round win against Lamar on November 11, 2022.
This upcoming season, Hudson and her staff will look to earn her fourth consecutive and LSU’s 10th overall NCAA appearance. The Tigers also hope to secure the program’s 14th ten-win season while in pursuit of an SEC and national championship.
Attendance is another important component for the Tigers, as Hudson and her staff are striving to set new attendance records inside the LSU Soccer Stadium in 2024. Three of the program’s top ten largest crowds occurred under Hudson’s tenure.
The 2024 Roster
This year’s team is a mix of youth and experience. The roster is made up of 29 players, with one graduate student, two seniors, seven juniors, nine sophomores and 10 freshmen.
Mollie Baker and Jaden Humbyrd will lead the squad as captains this year, while ECU transfer Jazmin Ferguson will serve as the vice captain.
LSU has welcomed four new transfers for this upcoming season in Ferguson, Cheesman, Sophine Kevorkian (USD) and Gabbi Ceballos (TCU).
The veteran seniors include Baker, Humbyrd and Tori Gillis, who all enter their final season with the Tigers this year.
Kevorkian, Ferguson, Hermannsdottir, Cheesman, Jocelyn Ollivierre, Angelina Thoreson and Sage Glover make up the junior class.
Thoreson returns to the pitch this year after sitting out of the 2023 season due to injury.
The sophomores on the squad are Ceballos, Danielle Shannon, Kelsey Major, Audur Scheving, Caley Swierenga, Andrea Iljkic, Ava Galligan, Brielyn Knowles and Alyson Campbell.
The freshmen class includes Riley MacDonald, Amy Smith, Annaleigh Bruser, Katelyn Holt, Emerson DeLuca, Ava Amsden, Aurora Gaines, Senai Rogers, Sarah Stadler and Natalie Dvorakova.
The addition of Scheving to the squad brings LSU’s total to four internationals on the roster. She is the second player to become a Tiger from Reykjavik, Iceland, along with Hermannsdottir. Other countries represented on the squad are Sweden and Czechia.
The full 2024 LSU Soccer Roster can be found here.
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