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LSU SOCCER DROPS 3-1 DECISION TO MEMPHIS IN 2011 SEASON OPENER
Team Notes
MEMPHIS,
Tenn. – Freshman striker Alex Cook led a late offensive surge by
scoring her first career goal as an LSU Tiger, but the LSU soccer team
dropped a 3-1 decision to Memphis in a difficult road test in its 2011
season opener on Friday night at the Mike Rose Soccer Complex.
With
LSU trailing by a 3-0 margin late in the contest, Cook pulled one back
in the 83rd minute after running onto a centering pass by sophomore
Addie Eggleston and burying a right-footed strike from eight yards in
front of the net for her first career goal in her collegiate debut for
the Tigers.
Eggleston made a tremendous individual effort
to beat the Memphis left back to the end line and send in a cross to
Cook streaking through the middle of the area for the finish at the
82:47 mark.
A native of Petal, Miss., Cook showed the form
that earned her recognition as one of the nation’s Top 100 recruits in
the Class of 2011 while leading the Tigers with four shots and three
shots on goal in the match.
LSU (0-1) struggled to find an
offensive rhythm from the start as it dropped its third-straight match
versus Memphis (1-0) as the sides have now battled one another in four
of the last five seasons. Memphis leveled the all-time series at 3-3
with Friday’s season-opening victory.
Memphis broke the
ice in the 21st minute of action as striker Christabel Oduro fired a
header into the back of the net on a beautiful cross by forward Kaitlyn
Atkins from the left side of the pitch. While streaking down the left
flank, Atkins fired a left-footed cross to Oduro standing near the
right post for the shot and a 1-0 advantage with 20:13 to play in the
opening period.
The opposition wasted little time coming
out of the halftime break by extending its lead to 2-0 fewer than 90
seconds into the second period on a 20-yard strike by Kelley Gravlin
over the head of LSU sophomore goalkeeper Megan Kinneman. Atkins then
put the match out of reach for Memphis in the 80th minute with a lofted
ball from the left side that found the right post and back of the net
for a 3-0 lead.
While pushing numbers forward, LSU turned
up the offensive pressure late in the match culminating with Cook’s
goal to draw the Tigers to within 3-1 on the scoresheet in the final
minutes.
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