The No. 25 LSU Soccer team will play for a chance to enter its first-ever NCAA tournament. LSU (11-3-6, 5-2-4 SEC) will play in its sixth Southeastern Conference tournament when it faces Auburn (10-7-1, 6-5-0 SEC) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Orange Beach Soccer Complex in Orange Beach, Ala. LSU’s conference record was enough to earn them first place in the SEC West and a No. 4 seed in the tournament. LSU has 19 points in the division standings. The top eight teams, regardless of division, are accepted into the tournament. Florida, Tennessee and Georgia make up the top three teams in the SEC with 27, 26 and 25 points, respectively. The No. 4 seed is the highest seed in the LSU program’s history. LSU soccer Coach Brian Lee said winning a division championship was one of his goals when he arrived on campus. “When I got here two years ago, [the team and I] walked up to the fourth floor of the athletic administration building, and we looked around and started setting goals for the LSU soccer program,” Lee said. “All we wanted to do was to be able to keep up with the [other LSU teams on the] hall. We are happy to finally be doing our part.” This is the program’s sixth appearance all-time in the tournament but only Lee’s second. He has an 0-1 record with his only tournament appearance – a 2-0 loss to Tennessee in 2005. First-round opponent Auburn had a 2-0 victory against LSU on Oct. 12 in Auburn, and leads the all-time series 10-4. “We’ve got our hands full,” Lee said. “They’re one of two SEC teams that beat us during the fall, but it’s a game we’re excited about coming into. We feel it is really hard to beat a team twice during one season, and hopefully that will pay dividends for us.” Although Auburn shut out LSU in the first match, Auburn coach Karen Hoppa was complementary of LSU’s offensive attack. “LSU has a great team and it will be a big match-up for [SEC] West pride. The game that we played them here was an outstanding, up-and-down game,” Hoppa said in a news release. “[Junior goalkeeper] Allison Whitworth had a great game to keep them off the board because they have a very talented attack.” If LSU were to defeat Auburn, it would face either Kentucky or Florida on Friday in the semifinal round. LSU tied Kentucky, 1-1 on Oct. 21 and lost 5-0 to Florida on Oct. 28. The championship game is scheduled for Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Teams that win their conference tournaments receive automatic bids into the NCAA tournament, but teams that lose their conference tournament have to hope for a selection from a committee to be included in the tournament. One of the criteria for selection is a team’s Ratings Percentage Index. The RPI is calculated by adding three components. One-fourth of the score is the team’s winning percentage; one-half is the average opponents’ winning percentage; and the last one-fourth is the average opponents’ winning percentage of the team’s opponents. LSU is ranked No. 27 in the final RPI of the regular season and holds a 3-2-4 record against teams ranked in the top 50 of the RPI. Lee said he feels comfortable with the team’s chances of making the tournament. “Hopefully, we’ve done enough already to get an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament,” he said. “We like where we’re sitting, and a win against Auburn certainly would probably clinch that.” LSU will rely on several of its SEC statistical leaders to advance in the tournament. Several LSU players top SEC statistical categories. Sophomore Rachel Yepez leads the SEC with 13 goals, and sophomore Michelle Makasini is No. 5 with 8 goals. Sophomore Malorie Rutledge also leads the SEC with her 12 assists, and freshman Taryne Boudreau and junior Roslyn Jones are tied for No. 3 with 7. Auburn Sophmores Caitlin King and Becca Howell are No. 2 and No. 6 in the conference with 11 and 6 assists, respectively.
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