The LSU soccer team desperately needed a resurgence coming off its first loss in a home opener since 1997.The Tigers (1-1) got what they were looking for Friday in a 3-0 win against Southern Miss (1-2).LSU’s veterans led by example as three different seniors scored all three goals for the Tigers.”This is our year,” said senior forward Rachel Yepez. “We’ve learned from all our previous mistakes and not being able to finish games and letting teams come back.”Sophomore goalkeeper Mo Isom enjoyed a relaxing game as LSU’s defense didn’t surrender a single shot on goal. The ball was in Southern Miss territory the majority of the game as the Tigers fired 17 shots while the Golden Eagles’ had only one off-target attempt.”We finally got a couple goals in the end,” said LSU coach Brian Lee. “It’s a big step forward from last week, because we defended better. But we can do so much more in attack.”Despite dominating the majority of play, LSU took 40 minutes to tack on the first goal of the game after a flurry of chances.Senior midfielder Melissa Clarke and Yepez hooked up for the goal as Clarke took a cross from Yepez and buried it in the upper left corner of the net.”In the first half we were playing a lot of long balls,” Yepez said. “That’s not really our style of play. It’s the quick passes and the pass and move. We started to do that more in the second half.”The Tigers took the 1-0 lead into halftime in front of a packed house of 1,628 fans. The sixth-largest crowd in school history took advantage of the priority-point game and flooded the stadium. Many students were forced to stand between the bleachers.LSU didn’t disappoint, and the senior duo of Clarke and Yepez weren’t done, either.Clarke provided the assist to senior midfielder Malorie Rutledge’s goal in the 82nd minute to give LSU a 2-0 lead.”It was great to finally get that first goal, and once we had the first one we knew they’d keep coming,” Yepez said.Yepez sealed the deal with an 85th-minute goal.”It felt really good to find our rhythm,” Clarke said. “For a while we were just passing trying to get something going, and we finally got it.”Lee credited the win to strong conditioning and better effort than last week’s 2-0 loss to Memphis.”We probably wore down Southern Miss a little,” Lee said. “They competed hard, but 90 minutes is a long time to soak up pressure. Once you get that second goal, you can really push for the third [goal]. A lot of times goals come in bunches so that wasn’t a surprise.”Yepez fought off a hard hit that seemed to bother her ankle slightly in the third minute of the game.”[The ankle’s] still there, so that’s a good thing,” she said.Yepez has a new outlook on this season, and she said it starts with her attitude on the field.”I’ve had a problem [where] if I make mistakes, I put my head down and get really frustrated,” she said. “I talked a lot about that this year. I have to stay confident and keep my head up and keep playing.”Freshman forward Reyna Lubin sat the game out with the flu, and sophomore midfielder Taryne Boudreau was still recovering from a concussion she sustained against Memphis.”We look forward to getting them back healthy and getting them back integrated in the team,” Lee said.LSU travels to Tampa, Fla., on Friday to take on Central Florida, followed by South Florida on Sunday.————Contact Rowan Kavner at [email protected]