It wasn’t as pretty as the beginning of the season has been, but the LSU soccer team managed to salvage its weekend with another late-game rally. The Tigers (9-3-2, 5-1) entered the third weekend of Southeastern Conference play on a four-game SEC win streak and had outscored their past four foes, 16-1.That all ended quickly as LSU scored just once in its first 135 minutes of play of the weekend. Kentucky blanked the Tigers, 1-0, on Friday night, and Vanderbilt seemed poised to do the same until an overtime goal handed LSU a 2-1 overtime win.”Vanderbilt deserves a lot of credit. They played great today,” LSU coach Brian Lee said in a news release.The Tigers found themselves in familiar territory Sunday afternoon, as they entered halftime trailing 1-0 to Vanderbilt (7-5-1, 1-4). Junior forward Nicole Lukens put the Commodores up after 21 minutes of play with a close-range strike. The goal was her sixth of the season and made her Vanderbilt’s leading scorer.”We had our first really flat performance in the first half in an SEC game, but we put our nose to the grind in the second half and overtime to get a result,” Lee said.LSU began the comeback bid just five minutes after halftime when junior midfielder Malorie Rutledge found the net on a cross from junior defender Courtney Alexander for her seventh goal of the season.Alexander has spent a good portion of the season as the team’s left back, but Lee moved her to forward in the second half, as senior forward Rachel Yepez missed time with an ankle sprain.”Courtney actually moved up front for us against Duke and helped us fight back in that one,” Lee said. “She had six or seven shots in just one half [against Vanderbilt], and we were really unfortunate not to win in regulation.”The duo combined again after nine minutes of overtime when Rutledge headed in an Alexander cross, giving LSU the win. The goal made Rutledge LSU’s leading scorer and put her into a three-way tie for first in the SEC.”Courtney Alexander really stepped up big for us today with two beautiful crosses, and Malorie continues to play like an All-American should,” Lee said. “She scored two tremendous goals for us when we needed them the most. You can’t say enough about those two and the effort they showed today.”The loss is Vanderbilt’s fifth of the conference season and extends their losing streak to three games. The Commodores have been outscored by a combined tally of 14-4 since SEC play began.”We need to regroup and refocus our energies,” Vanderbilt coach Ronnie Woodward said in a news release. “We need to let the disappointment of how hard we fought settle in and then learn from it and let go.”A series of thunderstorms helped to cool down LSU on Friday night against Kentucky (4-6-4, 1-4-1).Heavy rains in Lexington, Ky., provided a wet and muddy pitch LSU wasn’t able to maneuver.  “You couldn’t pass, you couldn’t dribble,” Lee said. “It wasn’t a soccer game — it was basically fighting through the puddles.”The Tigers outshot the Wildcats, 16-5, and managed four shots on goal to Kentucky’s two, but it was Kentucky junior forward Giuleana Lopez who provided the game’s only goal.Lopez found the net in the first half’s dying moments when she headed in on a corner kick for her third score of the season.”It’s great to get our first SEC win, especially over an extremely talented LSU team in very tough conditions,” Kentucky assistant coach Michelle Rayner said in a news release. The Tigers have an opportunity to solidify their lead in the SEC West with games against second-place Ole Miss and last-place Mississippi State next weekend.—-Contact David Helman at [email protected]