Soccer Earns Fourth Consecutive NCAA Berth, Will Face Texas Tech On Friday
BATON ROUGE – For the first time in program history, the LSU Soccer team (9-8-3, 3-5-2 SEC) earned their fourth consecutive postseason berth under head coach Sian Hudson and will kick off their 2024 NCAA Tournament journey in the first round against No. 8 seed Texas Tech (14-4-2, 8-1-2) on Friday, November 15.
The field of 64 teams, which will compete for the 43rd NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship, was announced on Monday by the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Committee. Thirty-one conference champions qualified automatically, while the rest of the field was selected at-large by the committee.
“We’re really excited to be in the national tournament for four years running and for the matchup against Texas Tech,” said Hudson. “It’s a great accomplishment to go dancing. Texas Tech is traditionally a very strong program and they’ve had a really good year in the Big 12, so it’ll be a tough test for us. They are well organized and have a fantastic coach in Tom Stone.”
“We’ll be heading to Lubbock with a lot of confidence from the way that we’ve played in recent weeks. Our team is ready and knows how to go into a game and have to execute in 90 minutes. We learned a lot in our SEC Tournament run last week in terms of tournament play, managing plays and finding ways to win.”
LSU and Texas Tech is one of thirty-two single-elimination first-round games that will be conducted at non-predetermined campus sites on November 15, 16 or 17 with the winning team from each game advancing to the second round.
The Tigers lead the all-time series over Red Raiders, 3-1, with Friday’s match being only their fifth time meeting. The two teams last faced off in 2020, when LSU came out victorious in a 1-0 win in Denton.
Second and third round competition will follow across eight non-predetermined campus sites. At each campus site, four teams will compete in a single-elimination second-round competition. The two winning teams will then compete against each other in a single-elimination third-round competition at the same campus site. The winning team from each of the eight third rounds advanced to the quarterfinals.
Four single-elimination quarterfinals games will be conducted on November 29 or 30 with the winners advancing to the championship final site.
This 43rd annual NCAA Women’s College Cup will be played Dec. 6 and 9 at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina, with the University of North Carolina and Cary, NC serving as hosts. The first national semifinal will be played and broadcast live on ESPNU at 5 p.m. CT Friday, Dec. 6, followed by the second semifinal beginning at approximately 6:30 p.m. CT live on ESPNU.
The national championship match will take place at 4 p.m. CT Monday, Dec. 9 and will also broadcast live on ESPNU.
Check the full interactive bracket for updated times of the 2024 NCAA Championships here. Television and streaming information is to come.
NCAA Tournament History
This year’s postseason berth marks the Tigers tenth program appearance in the NCAA Tournament and fourth-straight under Hudson, the longest streak by a coach in LSU soccer program history. LSU has claimed their spot in the tournament every year since 2021.
Prior to that, the longest streak of postseason appearances came in 2007-2009 under former head coach Brian Lee.
Hudson’s first career NCAA Tournament appearance in the Purple & Gold came against Memphis in 2021, who the Tigers also played in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year.
The Tigers defeated Lamar in Baton Rouge to advance to the second round in 2022, where they fell against Florida State. The run matched the longest in program history as Hudson and the Tigers will look to go even further this year. LSU owns an all-time record of 3-8-2 in NCAA Tournament competition.
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