For the LSU soccer team, the song remains the same.
One year after finishing one point shy of a regular season Southeastern Conference championship, the Tigers (6-8-4, 3-4-3) have strung together near misses of a different kind.
LSU’s season of discontent continued with back-to-back losses to No. 10 Florida and No. 15 South Carolina this weekend, bringing their record against ranked opponents to 0-7-1.
The lone positive result — a scoreless draw against BYU — once might have signaled a light at the end of the tunnel now appears to have been a mere flash in the pan.
After dropping Friday’s match to Florida (14-2-2, 8-1-1), the Tigers battled South Carolina (14-2-3, 8-1-1) evenly for 80 minutes before allowing the game-winning goal from South Carolina senior defender Brittiny Rhoades.
Only minutes before, LSU senior defender Courtney Alexander found herself in a one-on-one situation with South Carolina goalkeeper Mollie Patton but chose to chip a shot rather than dribble around Patton. The shot sailed off the mark and kept the match level.
The loss to the Gamecocks was LSU’s sixth 1-0 defeat of 2010.
“I thought we were very good defensively again, but at some point you have to score it on the other end,” LSU coach Brian Lee said in a news release. “We are still struggling to finish the chances we create for ourselves.”
Thursday’s match against Florida was another in a long series of missed chances for the Tigers. Despite being the Gators’ equal in both shots (11) and shots on goal (5), it was Florida who capitalized on its opportunities in a 2-0 win. LSU has yet to beat Florida on the pitch, going 0-12-2 in 14 meetings.
The Gators wasted no time in salting away their latest victory, as freshman midfielder Taylor Travis rocketed a 35-yard strike past LSU freshman goalkeeper Megan Kinneman just four minutes into the match.
Florida sophomore forward Natalia Torosian sealed the victory in the 71st minute, slotting the ball past Kinneman after receiving a pass in the middle of the penalty area.
Kinneman, who has supplanted junior goalkeeper and career shutout leader Mo Isom as the starter, allowed two goals in a match for the second-consecutive time after holding opponents to one or fewer in her first eight starts.
If the Tigers’ demanding non-conference schedule didn’t ready them for the gauntlet of SEC play, it certainly gave them an unprecedented amount of chances to rebound from disappointing outcomes.
Their last opportunity will come Friday against Arkansas, a team the Tigers haven’t lost to since 2003. LSU can still clinch its fourth consecutive SEC Western Division championship depending on the results from rivals Alabama and Auburn.
 
 
 
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Contact Ryan Ginn at [email protected]