The hopes of adding a Southeastern Conference championship to its remarkable season came to an end Friday as the LSU women’s soccer team missed numerous scoring chances and lost to Florida, 2-0, in the semifinal round of the 2002 SEC Tournament in Oxford, Miss.
The Tigers SEC title dreams were squandered by four shots that hit either the post or the crossbar.
“I think that the bottom line for us today is that we didn’t finish our chances,” said LSU coach George Fotopoulos. “Whenever you have that many chances against a team like Florida and you don’t put them away, then it’s going to come back and haunt you.”
Florida advanced to its seventh straight SEC Tournament championship game appearance, but fell short to Tennessee. The Vols scored in double overtime to win 2-1, ending Florida’s chance to win its seventh-consecutive SEC title.
LSU fell to 12-5-3 and awaites the announcement of the 2002 Division I Women’s Soccer Championship bracket that will take place today at 3:30 p.m.
The Tigers have an outside shot of making the 64-team NCAA Tournament after producing the most successful season in school history, including the school’s first-ever postseason win.
“I feel that we have a chance to make the NCAA Tournament, but right now we’re on the outside looking in,” Fotopoulos said. “We’ve beaten some top-20 teams and we’ve earned some good wins this season.”
Florida (10-10-2) jumped out to an early lead by scoring 11 minutes into the game to go ahead 1-0.
A few minutes later, LSU sophomore Artie Brown broke free and attempted a shot that struck the right goal post and ended a rare scoring opportunity for the Tigers.
The Tigers were granted another scoring occasion when All-SEC junior midfielder Stephanie Keating stole the ball and had a one-on-one chance against the Gators goalkeeper. But her potential game-tying shot hit the crossbar and flew out of bounds.
LSU’s other scoring opportunity came late in the game when All-SEC defender Ashley Mitnick blasted a shot hitting the left post. The ball bounced to LSU’s other All-SEC performer, Mandy Heintz, who then kicked the ball directly into the crossbar, furthering LSU’s inability to take advantage of its opportunities.
“I guess that because we’re so young and so inexperienced, we didn’t handle the pressure of missing those opportunities like we should have,” Fotopoulos said. “We just weren’t able to shake them off mentally and stay in the game like we would have wanted to.”
The Tigers will now cross their fingers in hopes that their name is called out for the 2002 NCAA Tournament.