It was anything but a cool October night for Auburn soccer Thursday when it hosted SEC rival LSU. Game-time temperatures were in the low 90s, and Auburn came out on top, 2-0.
Coming into the match, LSU was looking to win its first conference game of the season, while Auburn looked to continue its winning ways at home. Auburn also came into the game looking to extend its streak to 10 consecutive games without a loss to LSU.
Since 2010, Auburn had been 7-0-2 against LSU. The two ties occurred in 2017 and 2018, both of which had a final of 0-0.
In fact, the two rivals had not scored a goal against each other in the last 200 minutes of play, that is, until Alyssa Malonson scored her first goal of the season in the 30th minute of Thursday’s game.
“It felt amazing, especially since it was my first college goal,” Malonson said. “I’m just glad we got the win."
Kate Hart had several saves at goalkeeper to keep the Tigers from Baton Rouge off the scoreboard and protect Auburn’s 1-0 lead. The win marked Hart’s fifth shoutout of the season, four of which have come at home. LSU’s best scoring chances came back to back, but Hart denied both of them.
“You have to, as a goalkeeper, come up big at least once in a game in this league for us to win the game,” head coach Karen Hoppa said. “She did exactly that, it was a big time save. I’m really proud of her."
Auburn had several chances to add some insurance goals, but a couple of attempts were deflected off the crossbar, just missing. On one of her shots on goal, Kori Locksley hit the right post. Her next shot on goal fired past LSU goalkeeper Emma Grace Goldman and into the back of the net. This put the Tigers up 2-0/
Karen Hoppa’s Tigers will take the next couple of days off to rest before getting back to work on Sunday to prepare for their next opponent — a road trip to Mississippi State next Thursday.
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