It seems the LSU soccer team will have some history to celebrate after all.The No. 16 Tigers (14-4-4) earned their first-ever No. 4 seed in the 2009 NCAA tournament Monday night and will host Arkansas Pine Bluff (12-6-4) at the LSU Soccer Complex on Friday.It is the first time an LSU team has hosted an NCAA tournament game.”It’s super important for us,” said LSU soccer coach Brian Lee. “We’re just happy to be at home. It’s hard, with the regionalization … You’re so dependent on the team around you winning as well.”The news doesn’t quite ease the sting of LSU’s most recent game, a shootout loss to No. 14 South Carolina in Sunday’s Southeastern Conference tournament championship game. The Tigers held a 1-0 lead with less than three minutes to play but could not hold on.”That one is going to take a long time. Those last two minutes are going to stick with you for the rest of your life,” said senior midfielder Malorie Rutledge. “We can’t hang our heads too low — we’ve got a big weekend coming up. If you can’t get hyped about the NCAAs, you can’t get hyped about much.”The Gamecocks and No. 10 Florida joined LSU as first round hosts. South Carolina earned a No. 2 seed in the same bracket as No. 1 seed North Carolina, while the Gators are the No. 3 seed in LSU’s bracket, the Florida State regional.”Luckily, us and South Carolina are both at home for the sake of the conference,” Lee said. “Those extra two or three days you spend in Orange Beach … if you have to turn around and travel on Thursday, that’s a tough challenge.”LSU set out this season with hopes of championships in the SEC regular season and conference tournament, as well as an appearance in the Sweet 16.The Tigers came agonizingly close to accomplishing the first two goals and finished as runners-up in both the regular season and the tournament.Hosting both the first and second rounds this weekend could go a long way toward helping them with the third.”It’s something that’s never been in Baton Rouge, so we’re hoping the soccer community and the student body come out in numbers,” Lee said. The selection marks LSU’s third-straight appearance in the NCAA tournament. If the Tigers can advance past the first round, a game against either Memphis or Texas A&M would await on Sunday.”We have a great bracket — we have a great chance to advance pretty far,” said senior midfielder Melissa Clarke.Clarke and Rutledge led the Tigers in scoring this season and received on-air recognition from the selection coverage on ESPNews, a distinction Clarke dubbed as “pretty tight.”LSU opened the season with a 3-0 home loss to Memphis. The Tigers also played Texas A&M to a 0-0 draw in the team’s spring exhibition season.–Contact David Helman at [email protected]