Despite changing out of its normal formation, the LSU soccer team could not hold off No. 6 Texas A&M’s attack and fell to the Aggies, 4-1.
LSU coach Brian Lee decided to change the formation to better adapt to the Aggies’ elite duo of goal-scorers, senior forward Kelley Monogue and senior midfielder Shea Groom.
The Tigers played out of a 4-3-3 formation, which added another forward up top compared to their usual 4-4-2. The change in formation allowed the Tigers to drop five players defensively when the Aggies.
“We opened up with a five-backs, where we were going to have the outside backs attack late,” said Lee.
Texas A&M’s Monogue slammed home the Aggies’ first goal only 1:38 seconds in, her eighth goal of the season.
The Tigers came right back when junior midfielder Fernanda Piña whistled in a strike beyond the penalty box just 29 seconds later.
“It was awesome,” said Piña. “My mom and my sister are here, so I was really excited. But then, we lost so I am kind of sad right now.”
In the 25th minute, the senior forward Annie Kunz scored from beyond the box, breaking the tie at one goal apiece.
“On the second goal, we just stepped out of the line for no reason or that goal doesn’t happen,” Lee said. “If the five stay in line, then they would only be left early crosses—which we should be able to defend with [freshman defender] [freshman Jordane] Carvery, [freshman midfielder Christyna] Pitre and [freshman defender Alexis] Urch.”
The Aggies added another goal in the twenty-eighth minute, when Groom headed in a cross from freshman Haley Pounds.
In the first half, the Tigers managed only four shots including Pina’s on-target shot. The Aggies showed why the leads the SEC in shots and tested LSU’s defense with seven shots on frame out of 11 shots.
The physical side of SEC soccer came through in the second half, which included 27 combined foul calls and three yellow cards.
“Definitely, it did get chippy,” Clarke said. “There were calls left, right and center, all over the place. I just have to try and keep level headed. With a lot of stopping and starting, you can’t really get a flow to the game so you just have to do what you can with the time you have.”
In the 53rd minute, Groom headed in her conference-leading 10th goal of 2014. However, the turning point came when sophomore defender Megan Lee was helped off of the field after the score and did not return.
“[On Groom’s last goal] Megan Lee took a hit of some sort that kind of crumbled her,” Brian said. “From that point on when they saw that foul not being called and their teammate carried off the field, the game just got really physical going both ways.”
Despite scoring just on goal, the Tigers looked collected offensively with clean, quick combination passing that led to goal-scoring opportunities.
“The movement up top is good when we have three up there, “Clarke said. “We’re working well together. We’re improving every game, which is good.”
The Tigers cannot spend long dwelling on the loss because they host Arkansas in the LSU Soccer Stadium at 3 p.m. on Sunday. LSU will look to win its first conference win against the Razorbacks.