With a second-place finish in the Southeastern Conference this season, the LSU soccer team mastered nearly every conference foe it faced this fall.
Except for Auburn.
The SEC West’s other Tigers again got the best of LSU with a 3-0 rout in the first round of the SEC Tournament Wednesday afternoon in Orange Beach, Ala.
Auburn also defeated LSU, 3-1, in Auburn, Ala., last month.
For LSU (13-7-1, 8-3 SEC) it was another frustrating matchup with its chief divisional rival, who only drew the seventh seed overall despite finishing runner-up to LSU in the SEC West.
Two Auburn substitutes’ scoring strikes and an own goal doomed an LSU attack that couldn’t piece some positive plays together for a goal.
Auburn freshman Tatiana Coleman finally put her team on the scoreboard in the 31st minute after a pressing Auburn attack had LSU on its defensive heels in the early going.
Coleman took a floating free kick from Auburn defender Heather Havron inside the penalty area and soared an eight-yard header past LSU senior goalkeeper Mo Isom for the match’s initial score.
“They earned a nice kick and kind of hit a bad floater in there, but it came through, and [Coleman] headed it in fairly uncontested, which is a problem,” said LSU coach Brian Lee.
“I thought we got a little unlucky, but if you get as many chances as they got early, you eventually deserve too.”
LSU’s five seniors recently pointed to an SEC tournament title as a major goal, and Lee said the group was “extremely disappointed,” but understands the NCAA tournament still awaits.
A win likely would have solidified LSU as a host site for a first-round NCAA match, but the loss puts that hope in jeopardy, though LSU still boasts a top-30 RPI.
The NCAA chooses 32 first-round hosts.
“We’re kind of waiting now,” Lee said. “It’s probably going to be a geographic thing now. I felt, really, we could have been in play for a national [top-16] seed if we had made it to the finals of the week.”
 
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Contact Chris Abshire at [email protected]