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Soccer Travels To Bryan-College Station, Set To Face Texas A&M on Friday 

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Soccer Travels To Bryan-College Station, Set To Face Texas A&M on Friday 

BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The LSU Soccer Team (7-7-1, 2-5-0 SEC) is set to take on Texas A&M (8-7-0, 3-4-0 SEC) on Friday, October 18 at 7 p.m. CT on Ellis Field.

Both teams enter the match needing wins to solidify their SEC Tournament standing and NCAA Tournament resume. The Aggies sit in a four-team tie for sixth place in the SEC standings while LSU is in 13th place.

“Getting points on the road is crucial for us tomorrow night. We are at a pivotal point in the season and we can’t afford to come away from College Station empty handed,” said head coach Sian Hudson. “Our team is focused on building on our last performance. We’ve had some fantastic matchups with Texas A&M in the past with some really close games, so we’re excited to have another opportunity against them tomorrow.”

The competition between the Tigers and the Aggies will be streamed on SECN+ with David Ellis and Jeff Given on the call. The watch link and live stats link can be found here.

The Opponent

Texas A&M is 8-7-0 on the year and 3-4-0 in conference, having defeated Ole Miss, Auburn and Missouri.

The Aggies currently share the sixth spot in the SEC standings with Georgia, Kentucky and Vanderbilt, all with nine points. Texas A&M ranks fifth in the conference in shots with 258, fourth in assists with 30, and tenth in saves with 45.

Mississippi State and Arkansas both share the top spot in the conference with 18 points each. 

The Aggies have scored 26 goals this year, just one less than the Tigers, while allowing 19 goals scored on them. They have six shutouts through 15 matches, including blank slates by three different keepers.

Sydney Becerra leads Texas A&M in scoring with 14 points on five goals and four assists while Grace Ivey has four goals on the year. Mia Pante also has added eight points on three goals and two assists.

Tiger Notables

LSU will look to get back in the win column on Friday night in Bryan-College Station. The Tigers are looking for a spark after not having won their four matches. Their last victory was over Oklahoma on September 26. 

The Tigers came out hot on the attacking front through non-conference play, having marked wins over South Alabama (3-0), UMass Lowell (W, 3-0), Old Dominion (2-1), UL-Lafayette (3-1), San Francisco (4-1), Ole Miss (1-0) and Oklahoma (3-1) and a draw against Utah (1-1) .

LSU has scored 27 goals on the year. Ida Hermannsdottir, Mollie Baker, Jazmin Ferguson, Angelina Thoreson, Ava Galligan, Andrea Iljkic, Amy Smith, Kelsey Major, Sage Glover, Gabbi Ceballos, Danielle Shannon and Ava Amsden have found themselves on the scoresheet. 

On that same note, LSU has seen 12 different goal scorers through the regular season so far, with five players scoring the firsts of their career. Ferguson, Ceballos, Iljkic, Shannon and Amsden have all scored their first career goals at LSU this season. Hermannsdottir leads the team with seven goals on the year, while Ava Galligan follows with four.

The Tigers have recorded 16 assists  across nine different players 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 218 shots on the year, with 102 of those being on target. Galligan and Hermannsdottir share the top spot for the most shots taken with 31 each. Hermannsdottir also leads the shot on goal category with 18. Baker, Glover, Shannon, Smith, Amsden, Iljkic, Ceballos and Thoreson have also been pivotal in attacking and have all tallied 10 or more shots on the year. 

Audur Scheving, the sophomore from Iceland, has been pivotal in between the posts for the Tigers. She has recorded 47 saves and three shutouts for the Tigers in her first year. Scheving ranks amongst the top-10 players in the conference currently in shutouts (8th) and saves (5th).

LSU currently sits 13th in the overall SEC standings with six points as these final three matches of the regular season are crucial. while Mississippi State and Arkansas share the top spot with 15 points. The Tigers rank in the top-10 in the SEC in goals (27), shots (218) and saves (51).

The Tigers average 1.80 goals per game compared to 1.70 from their opponents, while also averaging about 14.5 shots per game.

Scheving and Shannon are the only two players to start in every match for LSU this year.

Last Time On The Pitch

The Tigers fell to the Texas Longhorns in their last match by a score of 3-1 inside the LSU Soccer Stadium. LSU’s lone goal of the day came from forward Andrea Ilkjic, who scored a penalty kick late in the second half. Also on the attack for the Tigers was Ida Hermannsdottir and Ava Galligan, who both recorded two shot attempts on target, and Sage Glover, Kelsey Major and Aurora Gaines, who also tested the Texas keeper. LSU goalkeeper Audur Scheving recorded three saves in the afternoon as well. 

The Tigers came out strong in the first half, creating multiple scoring opportunities and holding 53% possession compared to the Longhorns 47%. Hermannsdóttir, Glover and Gaines all tested Texas keeper Mia Justus in the first 45.

Texas opened the scoring in the 19th minute of the match when Amalia Villareal found the back of the net to give the Longhorns an early lead. Holly Ward provided the assist on the goal. Just two minutes later, Texas nabbed their second goal via a shot from Jilly Shimkin. Holly Ward once again provided the assist, her second of the afternoon. LSU was unable to cut the Texas lead as the first half ended 2-0 in favor of the Longhorns.

The Tigers called Justus to action on four occasions, as she collected four saves in the first half while Scheving only one. 

The Longhorns found a breakthrough in the 57th minute when Lexi Missimo ran all the way from midfield to the Tiger box to slot a shot past the reach of Scheving, making the score 3-0. Amalia Villareal provided the assist on that tally. 

Mollie Baker scored on a great shot in the 63th minute, but the goal was reviewed by the VAR and disallowed due to an offside in the buildup.

LSU responded to the call not even 10 minutes later, when the Tigers were awarded a penalty kick in the 72nd minute. Ilkjic stepped up to take the penalty, and made no mistake as she lashed a shot into the left corner past the Longhorn goalkeeper to cut their lead and get the Tigers on the board.

Iljkic made it 3-1 on the day, recording her fourth career goal, all coming in the 2024 season. While the sophomore converted a big moment for LSU, the squad was unable to find two more goals to equalize the match. 

It was the Longhorn’s 350th victory in program history as they gained three points on the day.

The Tigers finished the match with 16 shots, their most in five matches. Nine of those were on target. The Longhorns took 20 shots, with eight of those being on goal. Only four shots under Texas, it was an even matchup in Baton Rouge with both teams finding solid moments on the attack. 

Scheving finished the match with four saves for the Tigers, moving her total this year to 47.

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 2024 Roster

This year’s LSU 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 lead the squad as captains, while ECU transfer Jazmin Ferguson serves as the vice captain. 

LSU has welcomed four new transfers this season who have all already made an impact on the program in Ferguson, Sydney Cheesman (UNC), Sophine Kevorkian (USD) and Gabbi Ceballos (TCU).

The veteran seniors who returned from last year’s squad 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.

It is Thoreson’s first season back 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.

Riley MacDonald, Amy Smith, Annaleigh Bruser, Katelyn Holt, Emerson DeLuca, Ava Amsden, Aurora Gaines, Senai Rogers, Sarah Stadler and Natalie Dvorakova all make up the freshmen class.  

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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