LSU freshman defender Jordane Carvery wrapped her arms around fellow freshman Ella Williams as tears flooded down her cheeks after the Tigers’ disheartening 2-0 loss to Kentucky last Friday.
But as emotional as Friday’s loss to the Wildcats was, the LSU soccer team’s heartbreak didn’t end there.
Two days later, LSU sophomore defender Megan Lee fought back the tears in her own eyes as she struggled to explain her emotions to reporters following the Tigers’ 3-0 defeat to No. 8 Florida.
“I don’t know how to put it into words, really,” Lee said.
This wasn’t the type of year Lee and the LSU soccer team envisioned, and all that remains is the regular season finale against Southeastern Conference opponent Auburn (10-5-3, 4-3-3 SEC) at 7 p.m. tonight at LSU Soccer Stadium.
With consecutive top-15 recruiting classes filling LSU’s roster to the brim with international and local talent, the Tigers (5-12-2, 1-8-1 SEC) had their sights set on competing in the SEC Tournament and possibly beyond at season’s end.
But while Friday’s loss to Kentucky jeopardized LSU’s chances of reaching the SEC Tournament, Sunday’s defeat to the Gators officially dashed any remaining hopes of postseason action and unofficially signaled the end of the Tigers’ season.
As the 2014 season draws to a close, thoughts of what could’ve been have inevitably creeped into the Tigers’ minds.
“I feel like everyone eventually thinks back on the season,” said LSU sophomore forward Summer Clarke. “There’s been a lot of opportunities where we could have finished a few more chances or come out stronger or little things like that.
“You always wonder if you could have made that shot or if someone could have blocked that shot, what might have happened. But in the end, it is what it is. You can reflect on it, but it doesn’t really change anything.”
LSU’s loss to Florida on Sunday marked the squad’s sixth consecutive defeat, and it also gave the Tigers their 10th loss in the 12 games since claiming a 4-3 victory against BYU on Sept. 11. If LSU loses its seventh straight match in the season finale against Auburn tonight, it’ll be the longest losing streak of coach Brian Lee’s 10-year tenure.
But no matter the outcome of LSU’s season-ending contest against Auburn, the squad will finish with the worst single-season record since the Tigers went 4-15-1 in 1999.
Everyone expected a rebuilding season, but not to such a magnitude, said LSU junior goalkeeper Catalina Rubiano.
“More than anything, it’s just really frustrating because we know we do have so much talent,” Rubiano said. “We can feel the frustration in the games. We don’t get frustrated with each other, but we get frustrated over why we can’t seem to put it together. We’re hoping that over the next spring, we’ll develop more chemistry with each other.”
Megan Lee, who helped the New Zealand national team reach the quarterfinals in the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup this summer, is one of LSU’s many players that had never experienced a season filled with as many losses as this one.
Lee said the squad’s first SEC game against Missouri on Sept. 19, which the Tigers dropped 3-1, was what set the tone for the rest of the season.
“We were down 2-1, and it was only in our last 10, 20 minutes that we were actually trying our hardest,” Lee said. “That’s the biggest problem we’ve had with our season. We’ll go up, and [the other team] will come back and equalize or get ahead. Then, we wouldn’t really put the energy in to combat that until the last 10, 20 minutes.”
However, Clarke said the season could’ve gone much worse.
“If anything, I think it would’ve been more detrimental for us to come out strong and then fallen apart because we’d be coming into next year as a broken team,” Clarke said. “This season has kind of forced us to be closer because we’ve had to come together and rally ourselves. I think we’ve gotten closer as a team, and it’s going to carry into spring and next season.”
The Tigers will look to push past their tough season and finish the 2014 campaign on a high note against Auburn tonight.
But Clarke doesn’t think the squad should completely ignore all that’s happened this season. She said the rough year has changed her outlook on soccer but added it was perhaps a necessary evil the team had to endure in order to build mental toughness for next season.
“It’s new for me, but I think it’s good because every player has to go through adversity,” Clarke said. “It puts everything in perspective because you’re so used to being on the top and winning in everything. It brings a whole new perspective to the game being on the other end of that.”
You can reach David Gray on Twitter @DGray_TDR.