Two more goals from LSU freshman Summer Clarke wasn’t enough to end the Tigers’ precipitous fall down the Southeastern Conference standings, as LSU (9-8-2, 5-5-1 SEC) dropped its final game of the regular season, 3-2, at Texas A&M on Thursday night.
With Georgia’s loss to Florida, LSU needed only a draw to earn one of six byes in next week’s SEC Tournament. Instead, the Tigers’ fifth straight loss dropped them to the No. 7 seed, and they will face No. 10 seed Auburn in Monday’s first-round match.
“It’s fair enough for the course of the season and how it went,” said LSU coach Brian Lee. “We won the tight games early and we lost four really close games down the stretch. Things balanced out pretty evenly.”
Freshman defender Megan Lee’s return on the back line after missing two games to be with New Zealand’s national team couldn’t stunt Texas A&M’s offensive blitz.
The Aggies struck early when junior forward Shea Groom headed in a corner kick to put A&M up, 1-0, in the 14th minute. It was Groom’s 12th goal this season.
But the onslaught was just beginning. The Aggies, who wrapped up a tie for first in the SEC and the No. 2 seed in the league tournament, outshot LSU by a whopping 31-4 total.
“The first half, we were just out of sorts, defending them okay, but we gave up the clear goal,” Lee said. “We were still disappointed to be down because they weren’t creating a ton of dangerous chances.”
The final shots on-goal tally was 16-2, as LSU senior goalkeeper Megan Kinneman saved 13 chances to keep Texas A&M from putting the game out of reach.
Still, the game appeared to be in hand by the 56th minute mark, when Aggies junior forward Allie Bailey fired home a goal from 14 yards out.
At that point, LSU hadn’t recorded a single shot. Not even a minute later, Clarke went to work.
The freshman slipped behind the Aggie defense, and fellow freshman Emma Fletcher played the ball through to Clarke for an easy finish in the 56th minute.
“Emma just took the ensuing kickoff after the goal, maneuvered around a few defenders and found Summer for a one-one-one at the net,” Lee said. “It was a really great goal to see develop.”
The score marked the seventh time the rookie duo connected for a goal this season.
A&M kept pushing the action, needing only eight minutes to earn the eventual game winner when junior forward Annie Kunz slipped a shot past Kinneman.
Clarke kept the game in doubt until the final whistle, though, as she scored her 11th goal of the season on a rebound in the 74th minute.
The Tigers worked the ball from the back, as Megan Lee, seniors Alex Ramsey and Nina Anderson all worked the ball upfield before Anderson fired the shot that Clarke eventually put back.
“The second half was a much open game, up and back,” Lee said. “We found the space to make some things happen and really had the game on our foot a few times in the last ten minutes or so.”
LSU has now lost its last four matches to Texas A&M, dating back to a penalty-kicks defeat in the second round of the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
The teams could meet again quite soon, with LSU slated to face the Aggies on Wednesday in the SEC Tournament if it defeats Auburn first.
“We’ll try to right the ship,” Lee said. “We learned that when we all stay involved and have all of our best players on form like we did in the second half, we have a good chance to beat [Texas A&M].”