Soccer Splits Charleston Classic

After their exhibition match against Louisiana Lafayette was abandoned due to the rain that would create historic flooding in southeast Louisiana, LSU headed to Charleston to open their 2016 campaign against 17th ranked Virginia Tech and the College of Charleston. Only the rain would follow them there and the start of their season would wait in a delay.

When the match finally kicked off an hour and 45 minutes later, the Tigers would begin taking pressure from the jump. Sophomore goalkeeper Carolina Brockmeier would deny a clear shot on goal in the sixth minute, but a header off of a corner in the 15th would put Virginia Tech up. After that LSU would put the clamps on defensively for the most part, but failed to set an offensive rhythm. LSU could establish an attack from open play, with their best chance at goal coming from a free kick header in the 35th minute. Most of the offensive struggles can be attributed to the fact that despite returning the one-two punch of Jorian Baucom and Summer Clarke up top, LSU was still breaking in six new players in the squad.

After taking Saturday off, LSU returned to the pitch to play the host team College of Charleston and they immediately found the keys to the offense. Starting in the 9th minute LSU put the pressure on Charleston with a line drive shot from the top of the box from freshman Marlena Cutura and again in the 13th minute when Debbie Hahn floated a header from a corner.

LSU would not be kept off the scoresheet for long. In the 25th minute they claimed their fourth corner of the young match, and this time junior defender Jordane Carvery would head it home into the net for the first goal of her career.

Clarke and Baucom had a trio of chances during the remainder of the game, with one of Baucom’s chances coming from a brilliant piece of play where she intercepted a free kick at midfield and nearly won a breakaway race.

After just one shot for the entire game Friday night, LSU would spring for 13 on Sunday, seven of which were on goal. LSU would also go on to take seven corners in the game, four in the first half and three in the second.

Defensively LSU picked up where they left off on Friday night, playing highly serviceable defense given the new faces in the back line. The Tigers limited the hosts to just two corners and six shots on Sunday, only half of which were on target.

LSU opens up their home schedule on Thursday night against George Washington at 7 and then goes back to the park Sunday to play Colgate at noon. As of now, no streaming or TV service is listed for the two matches. But if you’re looking to take a break from the flood recovery efforts, be it working on your own house or volunteering elsewhere, you could do a lot worse than going to catch a free soccer match. And there’s no (meaningful) football being played at those times anyway. These are the only home matches until September 16th.