The LSU soccer team hasn’t had long to dwell on its disappointments in the past week.The No. 16 Tigers (12-4-3, 8-2-1) narrowly missed capturing their first regular season Southeastern Conference title Friday and must move on to the SEC Tournament today at noon.”It’s certainly a challenge to win three games in five days against quality competition,” said LSU coach Brian Lee. “This is probably the best SEC Tournament field in history with everyone rated so high and probably seven teams headed to the NCAA tournament.”The three-time defending SEC West Division champion Tigers enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed and will play No. 7 seed Vanderbilt (11-7-1, 5-6-0) tonight. Several players agreed a tournament championship could offset the frustration from a second-place regular-season finish.”Everyone is like, ‘Well, what if? What if we did this, what if we did that?’ But you can’t dwell on that,” said senior forward Rachel Yepez. “We need to do all those things right now — in the tournament and from here on out.”Some consolation exists for a few players in the SEC’s postseason awards, which were announced Monday.Senior forward Malorie Rutledge was named SEC Offensive Player of the Year for the second-straight season after amassing nine goals and 11 assists through 19 games. “Apparently my family and [Lee] knew yesterday, but they kept it from me,” Rutledge said. “It was a personal goal of mine, and it feels good to accomplish that. But I’m trying to stay focused on the team right now and come home with an SEC ring.”Rutledge and senior defender Chelsea Potts were named first-team All-SEC selections, while sophomore defender Allysha Chapman and senior midfielder Melissa Clarke made the second team.Freshman forward Carlie Banks earned recognition as a member of the SEC All-Freshman team.The Tigers will need contributions from their various award  winners for success in the SEC tournament, as LSU has never won the tournament and has yet to reach the final round. The Tigers have lost to the eventual champion in the semifinal round in the last two years.”If we come out this week and win this tournament, it’s a clear argument about who the best team in the SEC is,” Lee said. “There’s full credit to Florida. They were the best team over those 11 games, and we’re going to try to be the best team this week.”Yepez hopes to return in full health this week after being hampered by an ankle injury through the latter part of the season.”Some of it is kind of being scared at first,” Yepez said. “But just doing things one time gets me a lot more comfortable and a lot more confident, and that helps a lot.”LSU scratched past Vanderbilt, 2-1, in overtime on Oct. 11. The Commodores won four of their last five games to earn a spot in the tournament.
 
 
 
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