Alabama
LSU
Alabama Soccer to Face LSU Away
9/26/2018 12:29:00 PM | Soccer
The Tide seeks its first conference win of the season Thursday night against the Tigers
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama women's soccer will continue Southeastern Conference play on the road on Thursday at Louisiana State University at 7 p.m. CT in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The contest can be seen on SEC Network +.
ALABAMA BY THE NUMBERS
This week the Tide (6-5-1, 0-3-0 SEC) looks for its first 2018 SEC win, after losing two consecutive conference matches.
Last season, the Tide opened conference play with five consecutive losses before going on to win the remaining four.
Despite losing three conference games, Alabama has held an edge over its opponents scoring more than double the goals than its opponents (28-13) this season, while launching 78 more shots (212-134), and putting 30 more shots on goal (94-64) than its foes. The Tide averages 2.33 goals per game and 17.7 shots per game.
In 953:32 minutes of play, goalkeeper Alex Plavin has turned in 1.04 goals against average and has registered 40 saves and four shutouts.
Alabama recorded its fourth shutout of the season on Sept. 16, with a 1-0 win over DePaul.
Hart is in his fourth season at Alabama, with an improved record in each of his first three seasons at the helm of the program. He owns a career record of 32-33-6 over his four seasons, but is 27-21-4 since the 2016 campaign.
Alabama was picked to finish eighth in the SEC by a vote of the league's head coaches. The Tide had five players who were selected to the SEC Preseason Watch List: Forwards Abbie Boswell and Casey Wertz along with midfielders Christina Maartensson, Taylor Morgan and Emma Welch.
SPREADING THE WEALTH
This season Alabama has shown depth in its roster, as 12 different players have scored and tallied assists in the 12 games played.
Leading the team in goals (6) and points (12), is sophomore Casey Wertz, who accumulated her sixth goal of the season in Thursday's loss to Vanderbilt, 3-2.
Senior Abbie Boswell currently stands with 11 points (3g, 5a), and leads the team in assists.
Rounding out the top three in points (10), is freshman Kat Rogers (4g, 2a), who racked up two goals and two assists in the win over South Alabama.
The shutout over Troy marked to be a big day for redshirt-freshman Gigi Schorr, as she recorded her first career goal, but did not stop there and tallied two more goals for a hat trick.
FRESH FACES
The Tide's freshman class has already made a big impact, with four freshmen earning starting positions in at least one game so far this season. Riley Mattingly has started in 10 out of the 12 matches, while Kat Rogers has started in five games.
LAST WEEK'S RECAP
Alabama fell to the SEC leader Vanderbilt, on Sept. 20, 3-2. The Commodores scored late in the first half, but Alabama got on the board in the 59th minute when sophomore Casey Wertz scored her sixth goal of the season to tie the game. Both teams scored in the 71st minute of the game, including senior Emma Welch to tally her second goal of the season. Vanderbilt scored one last time to finalize the game.
After 90 minutes of hard-fought defense, the Tide failed to score an equalizer against Arkansas on Sept. 23, falling 1-0.
NON-CONFERENCE CAMPAIGN
The Tide completed the seven-game homestand, sporting a record of 5-2 over the stretch, and a 6-2 non-conference record.
The Tide outscored its opponents 26-9, outshot its non-conference foes 177-101 and put 79 shots on frame to their opponents' 51.
Goalkeeper Alex Plavin and the Alabama defense shutout four teams and allowed a total of only eight goals (0.89 goals per game).
The only non-conference home loss came Aug. 24, when the Tide fell to FGCU, 4-2. Even with FGCU scoring four goals, Plavin made a career-high nine saves in the losing effort.
Perhaps Alabama's best non-conference match was against Troy on Sept. 9, the Crimson Tide shutout its third opponent of the season 5-0, allowing only three shots on goal for Trojans. Gigi Schorr completed a hat trick scoring three goals, Abbie Boswell scored the remaining two to lead the Tide, and Emma Welch broke the program's career assists record, totaling 21 assists over her four years.
2018 SEC PLAY
Despite scoring many goals during the non-conference slate, Alabama has only scored two goals against SEC opponents so far and has suffered two shutouts in the three losses to Ole Miss (1-0), Vanderbilt (2-3), and Arkansas (1-0).
Overall, the Tide has been outscored, 5-2, but has put up two more shots than its opponents, 35-33.
IN THE SEC
In the conference statistics, the Tide ranks evenly alongside LSU. Alabama leads LSU in shots (35-33), points (4-3), goals per game (2-1), and corners (9-7).
Individually, senior Abbie Boswell ranks eighth in shots per game (9).
The Tigers hold and edge over the Tide in saves per a game, as goalkeeper Caroline Brockmeier ranks second in the conference with 17 saves in her three games.
While sophomore Alex Plavin rounds out the top 10 in saves with eight.
PLAYERS PERSPECTIVE
Sophomore Taylor Morgan on LSU: "We are not where we want to be, 0-3. We are putting ourselves in the same position as last year, with our back against the wall. If we do what we know how to do and what Wes (Hart) has been teaching us, I think we will be able to come out of this. We are capable; we have done it before. I think we play very different in comparison to LSU, and it is hard to compete against teams that do not play like you. It is hard to beat a team at their own game. I think we are more than capable of beating LSU this season."
COACHES CORNER
Coach Wes Hart on LSU: "Right now, we are in a very similar spot, just like us they've (LSU) got good players. This is certainly not a game we can overlook, we cannot afford to. We are looking at this as a competitive game. I think in the three times we have played them, we have tied twice and beat them in overtime the other time. It has been a very competitive series in my short time here."
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
Thursday's match against LSU marks the 23rd meeting in history between the two squads, as Alabama leads the series, 11-7-5. The last two meetings have ended in a double overtime draw, most recently a 1-1 (2ot) tie on Sept. 21, 2017.
LSU enters Thursday's match owning a 6-4-1 overall record. In SEC play, the Tigers are on the hunt for their first conference win too, as they sport a 0-2-1 record, after falling to Florida Sept. 23, 4-1.
Sophomore forward Adrienne Richardson leads the team in attacking as she has already scored a team-high of four goals this season.
Goalkeeper Caroline Brockmeier ranks third nationally with seven shutouts. Her game against Auburn marked the most saves by a keeper for a SEC match this season, with 11 saves.
COMING UP
Alabama will return home in a week, as it plays host to Kentucky on Thursday, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m.
Get all the latest information on the team by following @AlabamaSoccer on Twitter and Facebook and AlabamaSoccer on Instagram. General athletic news can also be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and AlabamaAthletics on Facebook.
