After starting the 2014 season with two wins, the LSU soccer team took a step back with 1-0 loss against Rice on Sunday.
In the Tigers first two games, they averaged 18 shots per game with almost half of these being on frame. Against the Owls, LSU only managed to place one shot on goal out of 11.
We didn’t finish our chances, junior midfielder Fernanda Piña said. We need to improve on our finishing because one opportunity can make the difference in a big game, Piña added.
From the first whistle, the Tigers struggled to get anything going offensively and for the first time this season failed to score in the first half.
“I thought in the first half our passing was very poor to be honest,” said LSU coach Brian Lee. “I don’t know if it was communication based or if it was just poor trapping and passing…Our movement off the ball wasn’t at the level it needs to be to help facilitate passing.”
The jump in competition between the Tigers’ first two opponents and Rice may have contributed to the slow start. LSU looked unprepared in the first half in dealing with the more athletic and physical play of Rice.
This adjustment was made more difficult by the loss of senior midfielder/defender Alex Arlitt, who did not play against Rice after suffering an injury in Friday’s game against Northwestern State.
“We have a really young team and there’s really not a huge reason for them to know the level of what’s going to come when you take a step up on the competition,” Lee said. “Not having Alex Arlitt…That’s our one senior and one of our big leaders. That probably didn’t help either tonight because they didn’t have as many people to lean on.”
The loss of Arlitt’s experience on the back line was lessened by the return of sophomore defender Megan Lee, who was a Second-Team All-Southeastern Conference player in 2013.
Lee returned to the Tigers’ starting lineup after missing the first two games of the season due to an injury that she suffered during the U-20 Women’s World Cup in Canada this summer.
The end of the first half was marked by several Tigers leaving the game due to injury. While many of these players returned in the second half, Lee did not return after leaving the field in the thirty-second minute.
The losses of Lee and Arlitt on the back line allowed Brian Lee to create a rotation of players along the back four.
“I thought [freshman defender] Alexis Urch came in and really had her best game of her young career yet against a good opponent”, Lee said. “I thought she really filled the center back gap. …We rotated a few kids. I thought [freshman defender] Ella Williams did very well, but she’s still young.”
In the second half, Brian Lee was impressed by his team’s performance.
“It’s just a young team not ready to play at a certain emotional and physical level in the first half, but they responded in the second half,” Lee said. “I thought we played a good bit better and we just couldn’t get a goal in.”
The Tigers looked much more collected offensively after halftime. The attack was more organized and it seemed the game would go into overtime until Rice setup for a corner in the eighty-sixth minute.
The Owls had been dangerously close to scoring on many of their set pieces all night. Finally, one found the back of the net off the head of Rice’s freshman midfielder Samantha Chaiken.
The Tigers have a quick turn around to their next game on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. against Nicholls in the LSU Soccer Stadium.