“Deserve to win” was the mantra set by LSU soccer coach Brian Lee at Tuesday’s media day.
Following a 2007 season that saw the Tigers win their first Southeastern Conference Western Division title and make their first trip to the NCAA tournament, Lee made no qualms about his team’s potential heading into 2008.
“This is probably the fittest, strongest, fastest team I’ve coached in my 13 or 14 years in the business,” Lee said.
The team returns nine of 11 starters from this past season’s playoff run, including senior captains Casey Crawford and Roslyn Jones who were in attendance.
“We are looking to win the SEC,” Crawford said. “That’s definitely one of our big goals. We’ve been taking small steps toward that for the past four years, and now it’s time to take that really big step.”
One factor that could help the team in the fulfillment of that goal is the arrival of highly-touted goalkeeper Mo Isom. Lee had nothing but praise for the true freshman, who enrolled in the spring and began her career with shutouts of powerhouses North Carolina and Duke.
“That’s a bit of our team that’s been missing,” Lee said. “Soccer is unique in that if you’ve got a big-time goalkeeper and a big-time goal scorer, everything else can fall into place.”
Jones, who rocketed LSU into the second round of the NCAA tournament with an overtime goal against Samford, echoed the confidence of her co-captain.
“So far we haven’t had any struggles,” she said. “Everyone is out there to win and fight. We want to win the SEC, and we’ve all been training hard to do that.”
The season kicks off Friday at 7 p.m. against South Alabama and continues Monday, Aug. 25 against Brigham Young.
—-Contact David Helman at [email protected]