Oct. 30, 2014
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BATON ROUGE, La. - The Auburn soccer team took care of business Thursday night closing out the Southeastern Conference regular-season with a 2-0 victory over LSU. The Tigers will take a four-match win streak into next week's SEC Tournament in Orange Beach, Ala., and potentially a first-round bye.
The Tigers will be playing in its 14th-consecutive SEC Tournament next week, the second-longest streak of any team in the conference.
Auburn got some quick goals to open each half against LSU. Seniors Chelsea Gandy-Cromer and Tori Ball both scored their goals within the first minute of each period, Gandy-Cromer's in the first and Ball's in the second.
The Tigers' win finishes their regular season with an 11-5-3 overall record and 5-3-3 in conference play. Their 11 wins is also already the third-most wins for the program in the last four years.
"You want to be playing your best soccer at the end of the year," Auburn head coach Karen Hoppa said. "Obviously, we're doing that right now. We've been getting some great results and really have some good momentum right now. I like the way we're playing on both sides of the ball. We want to put together the best week of soccer we can down there."
Fresh off her game-winner against Alabama last week, senior Chelsea Gandy-Cromer delivered her third goal of the year just 36 seconds into the match. Auburn got the first touch of the match to start and worked the ball to the left sideline and back to the middle with some crisp passes from Tori Ball and Kristen Dodson.
Gandy-Cromer sent a hard right foot at the goal and even though LSU keeper Catalina Rubiano got a piece of it, it had enough force to trickle into the lower right corner to take a 1-0 lead.
Auburn and LSU played fairly even through the rest of the first half. LSU's defense locked down on Auburn's attack for the remainder of the period, holding it to only one more shot on goal.
However, as the second half got underway, Auburn went back to the quick strike that worked for them the first time, only this time it took 12 seconds. As LSU got the first touch to start the half, Ball was able to take it away in their own attacking zone and beat the keeper in the right side of the net from 15 yards out.
Ball now has four goals on the season, tying her for the team-lead and giving her 20 goals in her Auburn career. Ball joins Brooke Ramsier and Casie Ramsier with four goals on the year to lead the squad.
"It's great to finish off the regular-season with a win," Ball said. "We came out and had a lot of energy tonight. We knew how important tonight was and we worked all week on coming out fast. Obviously, getting goals in the first minute of each half is big for us.
With the way most of the results in the rest of the conference have gone final, Auburn will have at least a six-seed or higher in next week's conference tournament, giving them a first-round bye. Auburn's first opponent has yet to be determined, but the match will take place next Wednesday at the Orange Beach Sportsplex.
For more information on Auburn soccer, visit AuburnTigers.com, follow the team on Twitter, @AuburnSoccer or follow them on Facebook at Facebook.com/AuburnSoccer.