For the second time in as many seasons, the LSU soccer team fell short of the program’s own lofty expectations, missing the NCAA Tournament.
The 2013 Tigers got off to a hot start in Southeastern Conference play, leading the league at the halfway mark of the conference with a 5-0-1 record.
A steep drop followed, as LSU lost its final six matches to finish 9-9-2 for the year.
“That’s not where we expect to be as a program,” said LSU coach Brian Lee last month. “It was a year of runs, and we happened to end on the bad one.”
The LSU freshmen buoyed the squad and made a little history as Summer Clarke, Megan Lee and Emma Fletcher led LSU near both nets and became the first trio in SEC history to make All-SEC teams. Each made the Second Team.
Clarke was LSU’s premier finisher near the net, tallying 10 goals and adding three assists.
Her Canadian running mate was Fletcher, whose 12 assists marked a new LSU freshman record. Nine of those 12 assists found Clarke.
Meanwhile, freshman Megan Lee bounced back after an ankle injury held her out of non- conference play to become a premier defensive stopper while also adding a goal and three assists.
“There’s no doubt the three freshmen were already a crucial part of our team, and that means the future for this program is better than what we’ve been recently,” Brian Lee said.
Senior goalkeeper Megan Kinneman wrapped up her illustrious career with a stellar final campaign.
Kinneman allowed just 31 goals in 20 matches, posted six shutouts and saved 95 shots, the highest single-season total of her career.
She finished her four years at LSU with a school-record 284 saves and 17 clean sheets, the second most in school history.
Without Megan Lee and with sophomore midfielder Tori Sample suffering a season-ending knee injury, LSU hobbled to a 4-3-1 mark out of conference.
But the Tigers turned it on to start SEC play, eking out three overtime wins and scoring five goals against Arkansas to put a return to the NCAA Tournament in their sights.
The back half of conference play was against considerably tougher teams. It showed, as LSU dropped four one-goal games, including a walk-off, penalty-kick defeat against Auburn in the SEC Tournament that ended the Tigers’ season.
“It’s difficult when any season ends, but the way we finished was certainly on the worse end of it,” Brian Lee said. “We still probably needed to win the [SEC] Tournament to meet our goal, which is the NCAAs. We need to be there every year.”
With another program- defining recruiting class on the way for 2014 and the freshman class’ emergence, a third consecutive postseason at home appears unlikely for LSU, which spent 2007-11 parked among the SEC’s elite.