Hurricane Isaac will keep at least one LSU team off the field this weekend.
The Tigers’ Friday home match against Stephen F. Austin has been postponed, head coach Brian Lee confirmed Wednesday morning.
The match has officially been rescheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 4.
As of 11 a.m. Wednesday, the soccer stadium was largely free of debris and the field had no visible puddles.
But Isaac’s glacial movement and projected path is expected to keep the storm’s effects in the campus area until late Thursday.
“The slowing down of the storm – pretty clearly, it’s gonna stick around a lot longer than we hoped,” Lee said. “Everybody was more comfortable making the decision early. The chance of playing Friday was really slim.”
Lee told The Daily Reveille on Tuesday that he was most concerned about the massive amounts of rain Isaac is projected to dump on the area, saying it could leave the field, “inoperable into the weekend.”
Lee also said a handful of players left town to avoid the storm, but several more remain on campus.
“The coaching staff has been sending the players group texts, telling them to heed the warnings to stay inside,” Lee said. “There’s nothing out there for them right now. We told them just catch up on their rest or relax.”
This isn’t the first time during Lee’s tenure that LSU’s schedule has been affected by a hurricane.
Hurricane Gustav forced LSU to cancel a pair of home games in 2008, and Hurricane Ike’s effects wiped out matches against Houston and UL-Lafayette just a week later.
“The situation is certainly similar [to 2008],” Lee said. “We’re not fearing for anyone’s safety like we might have been with Gustav. It still comes down to just waiting it out.”
The Tigers schedule was unaffected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Lee’s first season at LSU.
LSU, which is 1-1-1 this season, is still slated to play Houston on Sunday, Lee said.
“We’re on until further notice,” he said. “Our grounds crew is really good, and our field drains pretty well. Obviously, it depends somewhat on how much rain comes and the extent of power outages, but we don’t anticipate Sunday being an issue.”
The storm already caused the LSU volleyball team to move this weekend’s Tiger Classic to Rice University in Houston, while this Saturday’s LSU-North Texas football game is still currently set for 6 p.m. Saturday in Tiger Stadium. 
 
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