Being dependent on a single player makes any team vulnerable by making it one- dimensional.
Last year, the LSU soccer team’s offense was reliant on the play of then-freshman forward Summer Clarke, who led the team with 10 goals.
In the six-game conference slide that ended the 2013 season, opposing defenses targeted Clarke, and she only contributed two goals.
LSU coach Brian Lee has changed the strategy this season, rotating junior midfielder Fernanda Piña, freshman forward Jorian Baucom and junior forward Lexi Gibbs at forward to create a more dynamic attack.
“They’re very different players in terms of their big strengths,” Lee said. “Fernanda’s best strength is her crossing. It’s probably fair to say Summer is just a really all around excellent player. Jorian is still trying to find her way and get a feel for the college game and really get going.”
Not only do these players vary in strengths, they have all taken different paths to get into the rotation.
Baucom is a member of the 2014 recruiting class, ranked No. 7 nationally by soccer recruiting service TopDrawerSoccer.com, and made a splash by scoring in her first minute of collegiate play in the season opener against Troy.
Over the following five games, Baucom added speed and clinical finishing to the forward line. In fact, Baucom is tied with Clarke for the most goals on the team with three.
While Baucom is still adjusting to the collegiate game, Piña is playing her third year with the Tigers and has scored four goals in each of the last two seasons.
“I thought Fernanda did well up front,” Lee said after the TCU loss. “I feel like we have a lot of versatile kids. Fernanda, I thought, was dangerous again up front.”
Piña’s pinpoint crosses have created many chances for her teammates and she even added a goal against Nicholls.
While LSU fans may be familiar with Piña, Gibbs may be unfamiliar face.
“Lexi Gibbs is a nice spark off the bench,” Lee said. “She’s a high-energy player who’s in constant motion, and there are plenty of games where there is a time and place for it. She’s doing a really good job of sparking the team.”
Gibbs shined against Northwestern State on Aug. 29, recording her first multiple goal game and nearly pulling off a hat trick with several more opportunities she narrowly missed.
“It was really fun,“ Gibbs said. “It was definitely a team effort. I couldn’t have done it without all of them.”
Gibbs echoed Lee’s sentiments of how each member of the rotation knows their role within it acknowledging the rotation helps take pressure off of Clarke.
“I know in the past we haven’t been able to have [a rotation],” Clarke said. “Being able to bring on players that you can work well with no matter what is really nice. It gives forwards who have been playing a lot a break, which is really nice.”
Morgan Prewitt can be reached on Twitter @kmprewitt_TDR.
LSU soccer’s forward rotation takes pressure off Clarke
By Morgan Prewitt
September 9, 2014
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