Tennessee soccer is coming off a couple of tough matches. The Lady Vols remain unbeaten at 5-0-1 after tying at then-No. 12 Virginia on Thursday, Sept. 3, and defeating Northwestern 1-0 on Sunday, Sept. 6, at Regal Soccer Stadium.
In those results, Tennessee moved up in the polls to place itself as a consensus top 10 team. On Monday the Lady Vols jumped 10 spots to No. 5 in the Top Drawer Soccer poll. Then, Tuesday in the Intercollegiate Women’s Soccer Organization for Coaches/United Soccer Coaches Top 25, Tennessee moved up a couple of spots to No. 8.
Now conference play begins, as Tennessee travels to Baton Rouge, La., to face the LSU Tigers on Friday, Sept. 11. Head coach Joe Kirt pointed to the value of the Lady Vols’ demanding nonconference schedule.
“It just helps us be more prepared going into it,” Kirt said. “We know where we are. We’ve been tested. We know where we’ve been strong, and we also know where we’ve got to grow, and that helps us in terms of what information we need to give them and make sure we’re helping them.”
The Lady Vols are led offensively by fifth-year forward Kylee Simmons. Simmons has scored three goals, with eight shots on goal, and accumulated eight points. Taylor Cheatham is right behind with two goals and five points accumulated. Tennessee has been very close to a few more goals over the last couple of matches, but received a few unlucky bars.
Defensively, the Lady Vols have only allowed two goals in six matches. Cayden Norris has recorded seven saves with a .350 goals against average. Teams have not been able to run freely on this defense, and even when opponents such as Virginia and Northwestern made second-half adjustments, their production was still minimal.
Catch the Lady Vols in the LSU match Friday at 8 p.m. EDT on SEC Network+.
