COLUMBIA, Mo. – The LSU Soccer Team (7-7-3, 2-5-2 SEC) is set to conclude their regular season slate against Missouri (5-9-2, 3-5-1 SEC) on Sunday, October 27 at 3 p.m. CT inside Audrey J. Walton Stadium.
It will be a battle of the Tigers in Columbia as both teams will be fighting for a win to claim their spot in the 2024 SEC Tournament, which is slated to begin with first round competition on November 3rd. The top 12 programs in the league will make the conference tournament in Pensacola.
A win on Sunday would secure Head Coach Sian’s Hudson fifth consecutive postseason appearance in the SEC Tournament.
“We’re really excited to play on the final day of season with an opportunity to advance. Our destiny is in our own hands and we know what we have to do tomorrow. We have to win to jump in the standings and qualify for the beach,” said Hudson. “Missouri is going to be a difficult team to break down. They’re very disciplined and have shown a lot of resilience this season and we expect nothing different tomorrow. Both team have everything to play for, but we’ve been in this situation in previous years, so we know what it takes.”
Sunday’s match will be aired nationally on SEC Network with Ariya Massoudi and Ricky Lopez-Epstein on the call. The watch link and live stats link can be found here.
The Opponent
The contest will mark the 11th meeting between the programs with LSU leading the all-time series 7-2-1. Missouri leads the series when playing in Columbia 2-1-1. The last time the two teams faced off was in 2022, when the Purple & Gold Tigers came out on top by a score of 2-1 in Baton Rouge.
Missouri returns home to Columbia to wrap up their regular season after coming off a loss at Texas on Thursday. They are 5-9-2 on the year and 5-3-0 in their home stadium.
Missouri currently sits in 10th position in the SEC standings. A win or a tie on Sunday gives them a postseason berth.
In the last six games, Mizzou has netted five goals in the opening 10 minutes. 11 different Tigers have scored goals in Fischer (6), Kylee Simmons (3), Selm (4), Keegan Good (3), Landis Canada, Bella Carillo, Monica Brauner, Brianna Buels, Olivia Chianelli, Jess Larson and Emily Derucki.
Tiger Notables
The LSU Tigers currently sit 13th in the overall SEC standings with eight points and one final match of the regular season to go. Mississippi State leads the conference with 24 points.
The Tigers rank in the top-10 in the SEC in goals (10th), shots (10th) and saves (6th). The squad averages about 1.71 goals per game compared to 1.65 from their opponents, while also averaging 14 shots per game.
LSU has scored 29 goals on the year across 12 different goal scorers through the regular season. Ida Hermannsdóttir, Mollie Baker, Jazmin Ferguson, Angelina Thoreson, Ava Galligan, Andrea Iljkic, Amy Smith, Kelsey Major, Sage Glover, Gabbi Ceballos, Danielle Shannon and Ava Amsden have all found the back of the net for the Tigers this year.
Five players earned their spot on the scoresheet for the first team as Ferguson, Ceballos, Iljkic, Shannon and Amsden have all scored their first career goals at LSU this season.
Hermannsdottir leads the team with seven goals on the year, while Ava Galligan follows with five. The Tigers have recorded 16 assists across nine different players so far this year, with junior Sydney Cheesman leading the way. The UNC transfer has been pivotal in set pieces for LSU, recording a team high four assists on the year.
Overall, LSU has taken 235 shots on the year, with 108 of those being on target. Galligan has taken the most shots for the Tigers with 34. Hermannsdottir has the most shots on target with 18. Baker, Glover, Shannon, Smith, Amsden, Iljkic, Ceballos and Thoreson have also been pivotal on the attack, each with 10 or more shots on the year.
Audur Scheving, the sophomore from Iceland, has been pivotal in between the posts for the Tigers. She has recorded 54 saves and three shutouts for the Tigers in her first year. Scheving ranks amongst the top-10 players in the conference currently in shutouts (8th) and saves (5th).
Junior transfer Sophine Kevorkian got her first start in the net in the squad’s last match and totaled an impressive nine saves, a season high for the Tigers.
Last Time On The Pitch
The Tigers fought hard for a point in a 0-0 draw with the Vanderbilt Commodores last Thursday night at the LSU Soccer Stadium.
The evening began as the Tigers celebrated their three seniors: forward Mollie Baker, midfielder Tori Gillis, and midfielder Jaden Humbyrd. LSU Head Coach Sian Hudson presented them each with a framed keepsake to honor their time in the Purple and Gold.
LSU’s goalkeeper Sophine Kevorkian was the highlight of the match in her Tiger debut. Kevorkian stopped nine shots by the Commodores on her way to her first ever clean sheet as a Tiger. Her nine saves tonight marks a season high this season by a Tiger keeper.
Ava Galligan recorded LSU’s first shot of the match in the 5th minute when she nearly beat Vanderbilt goalkeeper Sara Wojdelko with a strike from long range. Galligan shot the ball into the top left hand corner of the goal, and it took a valiant effort from Wojdelko to push the ball over the net and out for a corner kick.
Sophomore Gabbi Ceballos tallied the only other shot on target for the Tigers in the first half.
Kevorkian stopped five shots in the first half to keep the Commodores off of the board and the first half ended in a 0-0 draw.
There were good chances for both sides during the second half. Jocelyn Ollivierre, Amy Smith, Danielle Shannon, Jazmin Ferguson, Ava Amsden and Galligan all tried their luck to get the Tigers on board in the second half.
Neither side was able to find a breakthrough and the match ended all square at 0-0.
The Tigers finished the night with 11 shots compared to Vanderbilt’s 18. Freshman Emerson DeLuca earned her first start in her first year as a Tiger.
Preseason Watchlist
Five Tigers on the LSU Soccer squad were named to the 2024 SEC Soccer Preseason Watchlist. A total of 88 student-athletes were named to this year’s watchlist, as Mollie Baker, Jazmin Ferguson, Ida Hermannsdóttir, Ava Galligan and Sydney Cheesman are the Tigers to keep an eye on this year.
Baker, Hermannsdottir and Galligan all return to LSU this year, while Ferguson and Cheesman transferred to the team this spring and enter their first season in the Purple and Gold.
A captain and leader on this year’s LSU squad, Baker enters her final season with the Tigers in 2024. The Gilbert, Arizona native was the only player to appear and start in all 20 matches for the Tigers last year. The forward tallied three goals, five assists, and 1,551 minutes on the pitch while earning United Soccer Coaches All-Southeast Region Third Team honors in 2023.
A native of Reykjivic, Iceland, Hermannsdottir continues to be one of the top midfielders to watch in the nation. She enters year three at LSU with 11 goals, four assists and 2,366 minutes in her career.
Galligan, a dual forward/midfielder out of Ashburn, Virginia, enters her second year with the Tigers after a breakout debut season in 2023. She recorded four goals, five assists and played in all 20 matches in her freshman season.
Ferguson joined the squad from East Carolina University, where she spent two seasons and was the 2023 American Athletic Conference Co-Defensive Player of the Year. A native of Conyers, Georgia, she will serve as a vice captain on the squad as she enters her junior season this upcoming fall. United Soccer Coaches named her a defender to watch in 2024.
Cheesman is a defender out of Lafayette, Colorado, who transferred to LSU from the University of North Carolina, where she tallied 175 minutes on the pitch in her nine games played and helped lead the Tar Heels to two NCAA Tournament appearances. The defender was rated four stars by Top Drawer Soccer in the recruiting rankings in 2022 prior to starting her collegiate career at UNC.
The 2024 Roster
This year’s team is a mix of youth and experience. The roster is made up of 29 players, with one graduate student, two seniors, seven juniors, nine sophomores and 10 freshmen.
Mollie Baker and Jaden Humbyrd will lead the squad as captains this year, while ECU transfer Jazmin Ferguson will serve as the vice captain.
LSU has welcomed four new transfers for this upcoming season in Ferguson, Cheesman, Sophine Kevorkian (USD) and Gabbi Ceballos (TCU).
The veteran seniors include Baker, Humbyrd and Tori Gillis, who all enter their final season with the Tigers this year.
Kevorkian, Ferguson, Hermannsdottir, Cheesman, Jocelyn Ollivierre, Angelina Thoreson and Sage Glover make up the junior class. Thoreson returns to the pitch this year after sitting out of the 2023 season due to injury.
The sophomores on the squad are Ceballos, Danielle Shannon, Kelsey Major, Audur Scheving, Caley Swierenga, Andrea Iljkic, Ava Galligan, Brielyn Knowles and Alyson Campbell.
The freshmen class includes Riley MacDonald, Amy Smith, Annaleigh Bruser, Katelyn Holt, Emerson DeLuca, Ava Amsden, Aurora Gaines, Senai Rogers, Sarah Stadler and Natalie Dvorakova.
The addition of Scheving to the squad brings LSU’s total to four internationals on the roster. She is the second player to become a Tiger from Reykjavik, Iceland, along with Hermannsdottir. Other countries represented on the squad are Sweden and Czechia.
The full 2024 LSU Soccer Roster can be found here.
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