UL vs LSU

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Louisiana faces its toughest challenge of the year

LOUISIANA La - Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns women's soccer team continues its three-match homestand Friday with a 7 p.m. match against I-10 rival Louisiana State University at Cajun Field.

The Cajuns (4-2) are off to their best start in program history and bring a two-match winning streak into Friday's affair. LSU (5-1-1) comes in after suffering its first defeat of the season last Sunday and features an offense that has produced 30 goals in seven matches.

Louisiana is 3-0 versus in-state schools this season with wins over Nicholls State, Northwestern State and UL Monroe.

Friday's match presents the Cajuns with an opportunity to snap LSU's winning streak against state teams. Entering Friday's match, the Tigers have not lost to a team from Louisiana since 1999. LSU is 15-0-2 against Louisiana schools since head coach George Fotopoulos took over in 2000.

Louisiana is 2-0 this season in matches played on Friday.

The Cajuns are coming off a successful weekend in which they posted two wins to move two games over the .500 mark for the first time in program history. In the last outing Louisiana slipped past UL Monroe 1-0 in overtime on a goal by Tiffany Garber four-plus minutes into the extra session.

"This is an important weekend for us as we have two in-state opponents," said head coach Dave Poggi in reference to hosting both LSU and McNeese State this weekend. "Obviously this is the best start that we've had but we are not going to let it get over our heads because we still have a long way to go and hopefully these two matches will help prepare us for conference play which begins in two weeks."

The Cajuns are led by Garber, the reigning Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week, and her four goals. The Lafayette native has three match-winning goals to her credit and has provided the decisive score in the Cajuns last three victories.

The Tigers are coming off of a 4-3 overtime loss to No. 11 Texas last Sunday in a match where LSU led 3-1 at intermission.

"LSU gives us a lot of different looks and presents the biggest challenge we've seen so far this season," Poggi remarked. "They are strong at every position, have good team speed and there's not really a weak spot to try and attack.

"What it will take from us is more of the same effort that got us through last weekend, which is working hard for each other and taking advantage of the few opportunities that hopefully we will get," Poggi added.

Forward Stacy Bishop leads the Tigers into the match with the Cajuns. The freshman from Land O'Lakes, Fla., leads the team and the Southeastern Conference in goals scored with 10 and ranks fifth in the nation in goals per game average with 3.14

LSU leads the all-time series 3-0 with the last two meetings coming in Baton Rouge.

UL will be seeking to score its first goal in the series having been shutout the past three seasons.

This will be the second meeting in Lafayette, but the first at Cajun Field. In the Cajuns inaugural season, 2000, LSU took a 4-0 win at Moore Park Sept. 26, 2000.

Following Friday's match, the Cajuns will conclude their current three-match homestand on Sunday at 1 p.m. versus McNeese State.

LOUISIANA SI

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UL has its two-match win streak snapped

LOUISIANA La. - Artie Brown scored two goals and added an assist to help lead Louisiana State University to a 4-0 win over Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns women' soccer team here Friday evening at Cajun Field.

With the win LSU (6-1-1) remained unbeaten in its last 18 matches against in-state teams. Louisiana had its two-match win streak snapped and fell to 4-3 suffering its first loss to an in-state team this season.

After going back-and-forth for the first six-plus minutes of the match with neither team getting a good scoring chance the Tigers broke through at the 7:32 mark when Brown received a pass from Rachel Cohen and dribbled in the box and slipped one past Cajuns goalkeeper Anna Brannon for the match-winner and a 1-0 lead.

Brown's speed would pay dividends for the Tigers 11 minutes later when she gained possession of a ball from 40 yards out and raced past the Cajun defenders into the left wing and took the ball deep inside the box sending a shot that paralleled the out-of-bounds line and found its way past Brannon and into the net for a 2-0 lead.

LSU would add two more goals in the second half to produce the final margin of 4-0. Brown fed Cohen on a two-on-one situation four minutes into the second half and Danielle Keath added a late goal at 82:46.

UL's offense was dealt a blow midway through the first half when forward Tiffany Garber injured her right ankle as she was streaking down the sideline on a breakaway. Garber, the Cajuns leading goal scorer with four, would miss the rest of the match.

"I wasn't pleased with how we came out initially," said UL head coach Dave Poggi. "But, I was pleased with how we finished the match and I think this is something we can learn from and hopefully build on."

"They (LSU) took advantage of their opportunities," Poggi added. "We struggled to match up with their speed, but toward the end of the first half we started to put some pressure on and I thought we carried that over into the second half.

"We need to be better at putting away our chances," Poggi stressed. "I think we had a good game plan going in and we were unlucky at times not to have it pay off for us."

The Cajuns return to action Sunday as they conclude their current three-match homestand with a 1 p.m. match against McNeese State at Cajun Field.


MATCH SUMMARY
Louisiana State at Louisiana
Date: Sept. 19, 2003
Site: Lafayette, La. (Cajun Field)
Att: 561 Time: 1:53

Goals by Period 1 2 Total
LSU(6-1-1) 2 2 4
UL Lafayette (4-3) 0 0 0

SCORING SUMMARY:
1. 7:32 LSU Artie Brown (Rachel Cohen)
2. 18:35 LSU Artie Brown (unassisted)
3. 49:51 LSU Rachel Cohen (Artie Brown)
4. 82:46 LSU Danielle Keath (Christine Haman)

Shots: LSU 21, UL 9
Shots on Goal: LSU 13, UL 4
Saves: LSU 4 (DesOrmeaux), UL 9 (Brannon 4,
Preseault 4, TEAM 1)
Fouls: LSU 18, UL 10
Corner Kicks: LSU 2, UL 3
Cautions: LSU 1 (Brown, 35:00), UL 0
Offsides: LSU 1, UL 1

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