Soccer Preview and Game Thread: LSU

Nonconference play is over. For the rest of the season, all opponents will be the familiar foes of the SEC. Vanderbilt finished the tune-up portion of its schedule with a 6-0-1 record. They outscored opponents 21 to 1. Opponents only managed 36 shots attempted and put a meager 16 on target. Meanwhile, the Commodores unleashed 112 shots with 52 being on goal. The consistent territorial advantage showed up in the corner kick advantage of 36 to 12.

Their last time out was a 4-0 victory over the MTSU Blue Raiders. The local foes provided more resistance than most but were broken down enough for the score to be comfortable.

The overall possession was split pretty evenly. The possession map shows Vanderbilt’s advantage though. Twenty-eight of ninety minutes were spent in MTSU’s defensive half with the ball. MTSU was able to hold the ball for 20 minutes on attack but only 7 minutes were spent in shooting range.

Raegan Kelley and Rachel Deresky are on fire. A pair of goals and an assist for Kelley continues her splendid campaign which has seen her score 5 times and assist on 7 more. Deresky’s goal was her fourth in the first seven matches. McLaughlin got her first goal as a Commodore. I am choosing to believe that the freshman scoring is what convinced her sister to commit to Vanderbilt this week, too.

The task gets tougher today though. The grind begins with a home match against LSU. Neither team played on Thursday or Friday like the rest of the league. The Bayou Bengals are 5-1-2 with a draws against UCF (1-1) and at #14 Pepperdine (2-2). The loss was 2-3 at #6 Rutgers after leading 2-0 at half. Rutgers would score in the 50th, 74th, and 85th minutes to complete the comeback.

The Tigers with the most bite are Alesia Garcia, Ida Hermannsdottir, Mollie Baker, and Sage Glover. Garcia and Hermannsdottir are tied for the team lead with 4 goals while adding 1 and 2 assists, respectively. Baker and Glover are just behind at 3 goals each. Baker has the only assist between them. Interestingly, none of them have started more than 6 matches. Garcia and Hermannsdottir have started 6 and 5 matches each while the pair of Baker and Glover are both at 3.

Another one to watch is Angelina Thoreson. She has 1 goal and 4 assists, which leads the team. Thoreson is tied with Garcia for 2nd in shot attempts at 14. They trail Baker who has made 23 attempts.

Mollee Swift has started 7 games in goal. The LSU website’s statistics page has an interesting discrepancy where there are only 7 starts listed for a goalkeeper. The 8th game of goalkeeper statistics was seemingly not entered. Swift has made 26 saves and allowed 8 goals in the 7 matches entered.

Today’s match starts at noon CT. The first 250 fans get white shirseys. Shake Shack is also giving away hamburgers. You may be too late for the giveaways since this was delayed by some car troubles. The match will be televised on ESPNU and streamed on ESPNU/ESPN+.

I will be driving for this one, so you shall be left to your own devices. Or maybe I will be stuck waiting on this leaking tire to get fixed. Yay.