The LSU soccer team overcame a quick scare Friday night and left Fayetteville, Ark., with a 4-1 win and its third-consecutive Southeastern Conference Western Division title.”We’re certainly very excited to win the SEC West for a third year in a row. We’re also very pleased that we are playing this well this late in the season,” said LSU head coach Brian Lee in a news release. “That is big for us as we head into postseason play. I am very pleased with the effort and intensity we showed tonight.”The No. 16 Tigers (12-4-3, 8-2-1) also secured the No. 2 seed in Wednesday’s SEC tournament with the win, but they weren’t fortunate enough to bring home the regular season SEC championship. LSU entered the weekend needing a loss from first-place Florida to win the conference, but the No. 10 Gators secured their fourth-consecutive SEC crown with a 3-0 win against No. 13 South Carolina.”When you play for Florida, that’s the No. 1 thing, to win the SEC,” said Florida coach Becky Burleigh in a news release. “When you win the SEC, good things follow after that, so this is just a first step for us in terms of our postseason play going forward. It’s a really big step.”Arkansas (8-7-4, 2-7-2) put a scare into the Tigers in the game’s early going, when senior midfielder Sophie Wentz scored off a corner kick just 12 minutes into the match. The goal was just Arkansas’ fifth of the conference season, making the Razorbacks just the fourth SEC team to score on LSU.LSU wasted no time getting back into the game, when senior midfielder Malorie Rutledge sent a free kick to sophomore midfielder Taryne Boudreau, who tied the score in the 22nd minute.”I’m pleased with the way we responded after giving up a goal early on,” Lee said in a news release. “We were outstanding in the attack tonight passing and moving and putting ourselves in position to score goals.”Rutledge had a say in all four LSU goals, as she and senior forward Amanda Carreno put on an offensive clinic to give LSU a 3-1 lead entering halftime.Rutledge bagged her team-best ninth goal of the year in the 30th minute when she fired home off a left-side cross from Carreno.”The pressure was on us to perform tonight because we knew if we didn’t that we probably wouldn’t win the SEC West,” Rutledge said in a news release. “That was our main focus tonight, coming out and getting a win. It’s really one of those things where you just feel on top of your game, and I think we showed that tonight.”Carreno received some help netting her first goal of the season just two minutes before halftime, when she headed in a goal off a Rutledge cross.The Tigers’ finished off the scoring in the 58th minute, when Rutledge earned her third assist of the match with a cross to sophomore forward Kellie Murphy, who headed in for her second goal of the season.LSU faces Vanderbilt in the first round of the SEC tournament Wednesday. The Tigers escaped the Commodores, 2-1, in overtime earlier this season, but Vanderbilt has won four of five games since that matchup. The Commodores have not allowed a goal in each of their past four games. – – – -Contact David Helman at [email protected]