Auburn soccer shut out SEC opponent LSU in its last home game of the regular season. The home team celebrated senior night with a 3-0 win to bring its SEC record to 3-4-2 and overall record to 7-6-4.
The seniors honored on Sunday included forwards Maddie Simpson and Marissa Arias, goalkeepers Maddie Prohaska and Maddie Lo and midfielder/forward Sydney Richards.
“We did not win our senior game last year and that is something those seniors remember,” said head coach Karen Hoppa. "We have three fifth-year kids and two fourth-year kids and its always a bittersweet day. Really grateful for them and grateful they came to Auburn. I think they are true Auburn women.”
The Auburn Tigers were coming off a close loss to Florida and a tie with Texas A&M.
The Auburn offense came in hot in the first half with nine shots in the half. After a foul on LSU’s Maya Gordon, which resulted in a free kick for the home team, Simpson put Auburn on the board with an assist from senior midfielder Anna Haddock.
Less than 20 minutes later, an Auburn corner kick resulted in a goal from freshman defender Jessica Osborne to extend the Auburn lead to two with 15 minutes left in the opening half.
Defensively, the home team did not let much pass with LSU only having three shots in the first half, zero of which were on goal. LSU finished the game with nine total shots, three of which were on goal compared to Auburn’s 13 total shots with eight on goal.
The second half opened up with a yellow card to each team within the first five minutes. This trend would continue with a yellow to Simpson in the 76th minute and a yellow to LSU’s Rammie Noel just two minutes later for a total of four yellow cards in the half, split evenly between the teams.
“30 total fouls in a game are a lot, but that’s the SEC," Hoppa said. "Everybody’s got great athletes. Everybody is playing hard. I was just proud of our team for keeping their heads up.”
In the 74th minute of the game, Simpson scored once again as she sent a shot with her left foot into the top right corner of the net, above LSU goalie Mollee Swift, to give Auburn a 3-0 lead.
“We need to build on this performance and trying to keep possession in the midfield a little bit better," Hoppa said. "We’re going to have to defend, they’ve got some of the top players in the conference on the attack. We are only focused on Georgia right now. If we get a result there, we’re in, so we control our destiny."
Next up, Auburn will head to Athens, Georgia to take on the Georgia Bulldogs for the last game of the regular season on Thurs., Oct. 26, at 5 p.m. CST. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+. Auburn now has 11 points in the conference, placing in in a tie for eighth, meaning the result of this game will likely decide the Tigers' fate for a ticket to the SEC Tournament.
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Alexa Gardner is a junior at Auburn, majoring in exercise science. From Birmingham, Alabama, she started with The Plainsman in fall 2022.
Twitter: @alexagardner_
