Following a 4-1 win against Georgia before a school record of 778 fans on Friday night, the LSU soccer team ran into a buzz saw Sunday against defending Southeastern Conference champion Tennessee in a 3-0 loss.
Volunteers forward Lyndsey Patterson led the way for UT, scoring two goals in the game. She scored the Volunteers’ first and last goals of the game. Patterson scored the first goal at the 17:07 mark with a redirected cross assist from UT forward Rhian Wilkinson. Her last goal came at 85:31 on a corner kick assist from midfielder Ali Christoph.
UT scored its second goal on a header by defensiveman Keeley Downing on a corner kick assist by Christoph.
LSU coach George Fotopoulos said the Tigers inability to defend the corner kick made a big difference in Sunday’s game.
“They scored off of two corner kicks at the beginning of the game,” Fotopoulos said. “Up until those corner kicks, I thought the game was even. The corner kicks was just a lack of discipline on our part to be organized.”
The Volunteers (11-4, 5-1 SEC) experience showed against the Tigers (9-5-1, 2-4 SEC), Fotopoulos said.
“They have national prominent recruits, national team players,” Fotopoulos said. “They have players that just played in the Women’s World Cup playing on the team.
“We have a lot of inexperience, and that inexperience showed today when it came down to making tactical decisions in very important parts of the game.”
UT took more shots on goal than LSU with a 13-6 advantage, and the Volunteers also had a 9-2 advantage on corner kicks. Fotopoulos said it is more important to capitalize on opportunities than just having opportunities.
“It wasn’t so much the shooting that made a difference today,” Fotopoulos said. “It was just the ability to capitalize on dead ball pieces, which I think Tennessee did a great job.”
Tigers forward Artie Brown said she wanted to prove that Friday’s game against UGA was a true representation of LSU. Brown scored an unassisted goal against the Bulldogs but was able to get just one shot against UT.
“I didn’t want everybody to think it was a fluke that we beat Georgia on Friday,” Brown said. “I wanted to leave here with a win versus Tennessee. We had a great crowd out here (468 in attendance), and I knew that they were the SEC champs last year. And I just wanted to prove that we could play with anybody.”
The Tigers must win two of their last three SEC contests to be eligible for postseason play. Those games come against Alabama, Auburn and Arkansas – all on the road.
LSU defensiveman Ashleigh Gunning said she knows the Tigers are capable of qualifying for postseason play.
“We know we can do it if we play like we did against Georgia,” Gunning said. “I really don’t have any worries about it. All we need are two of the next three. I know we can do it. We just have to pull together as a team.”