Tech tames LSU, advances to Round of 32

Friday, November 15

Lubbock, Texas

7 p.m.

Texas Tech Athletics

15-4-2, 8-1-2

LSU

9-9-3, 3-5-2

LSU

Texas Tech

Tech tames LSU, advances to Round of 32

November 16, 2024 | Women's Soccer

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The Red Raiders used two first half goals to down the Tigers, 2-1

By: Andrew Stern

LUBBOCK, Texas – Macy Blackburn had to two assists on a pair of magical crosses to Taylor Zdrojewski and Skylar Haase to power No. 8 Texas Tech to a 2-1 victory Friday night in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament at the John Walker Soccer Complex.

In front of an electric crowd of nearly 1800 (1788), the eighth-seeded Red Raiders (15-4-2) used the first half strike from Zdrojewski (23rd minute) and a header from Haase (42nd minute) to take a 2-0 lead into the break. Blackburn, who has already broken the all-time assist record at Texas Tech, recorded her ninth and 10th assists of the season and the 32nd and 33rd of her career.

Blackburn with her two assists tonight moved in solo 10th-place on the active career assists mark.

The goal from Zdrojewski came on yet another clinical free kick service from Blackburn, as the All-American and 2024 Defender of the Year clipped a perfect ball that found a cutting Zdrojewski in the middle of the Tigers 18-yard box. The forward hit the ball without taking a touch and slotted a rocket shot past LSU GK Audur Scheving and into the open net.

The goal for Zdrojewski was her team-leading 10th goal of the season.

Up by a goal, the Red Raiders continued to buzz in the final 20 minutes of the half, as Zdrojewski nearly scored her second goal of the night in 30th minute when she put a header on frame that beat Scheving before being cleared off the line by an LSU defender.

The header was made possible after a gorgeous service from midfielder Peyton Parsons.

Riding the momentum, finally found the all-important second goal just 21 seconds in the 42nd minute when freshman Millie Elwood found a streaking Blackburn.

The defender raced past the LSU backline and whipped a perfect ball that found a streaking Haase.

The nearly six-foot forward rewarded the strong service from Blackburn as she headed the ball into the bottom-right corner of the net and past a diving Scheving.

Just 27 seconds into the second half, LSU (9-9-3) responded using a goal from Amy Smith to pull to within 2-1.

Nursing the one goal lead, the Red Raiders got three key second half saves from goalkeeper Faith Nguyen to close out their fourth straight first round win and eighth first round win in nine appearances. Nguyen ended with five total saves on the night.

The goalkeeper was magical all night for the Red Raiders as she made the five clutch saves including a pair of acrobatic stops in the 12th and 67th minutes. The save in 12th minute was a diving stop on a One-V-One attempt with LSU forward Danielle Shannon.

Nguyen's second highlight save was an acrobatic punch of a rising shot from Ava Galligan that was destined for the top-right corner.

With the victory, Tech is now 7-0-1 all-time in the First Round at the John Walker Soccer Complex and the the Red Raiders have advanced to the NCAA Round of 32 in all eight tournaments in which they have hosted an NCAA Tournament First Round match.

Tonight's crowd of 1788 was the fifth-largest all-time crowd in the NCAA Tournament trailing just last season's Round of 16 matchup against North Carolina (2558), last season's Round of 32 matchup against Princeton (2346), a 2015 First Round matchup against North Texas (1817) and last season's First Round matchup with FGCU (1810).

With the victory tonight, the Red Raiders reached 15 wins for the seventh time since 2012 and for the second straight season. The Red Raiders are now 31-6-7 the last two seasons and are 20-2-2 at the John Walker Soccer complex over that span.

Tech's 2-1 win also marks the 35th-consecutive result (win or tie) for the Red Raiders when scoring twice. The Red Raiders are 34-0-1 in that stretch with the lone tie coming last season at BYU.

HEAD COACH TOM STONE:
"First I would like to congratulate LSU. When the draw came up, we knew we were going to get a team that we were going to be higher ranked than, but we didn't think we'd get a team from the SEC that was so athletic. That was going to be competitive, and was going to be that difficult of an opening round game. They had our full attention. Sian [Hudson] is a great coach and her team is very tricky. When they were on they were beating Auburn and winning big games. When they weren't on, they looked less than that. Their range of play was pretty broad. We didn't know which LSU team we were going to get. We just assumed we'd get their best which I think we did in many ways. They came out of the locker room and scored to make it interesting. We were rattled for about 15 minutes after that, then once we settled down and started to pass and move the ball, the game settled into our rhythm again. Their rhythm is very direct and very chaotic. They look to create chaos and look to benefit off it. They created some chaos once they scored, but once we calmed the game down again, we salted it away nicely and obviously [Kaitlyn] Giametta, Z[Zdrojewski] and Peyton and a few others could have put the game away, but we didn't do that. And then Faith had an unbelievable fingertip save. An 'are you kidding me' type save. That ball was hit about as hard as you can hit a soccer ball. And it was going to hit the crossbar and maybe the bottom of the crossbar. She tipped it over and saved the day as well."

On the response after LSU scored 27 seconds into the second half:
"I don't think we settled in immediately but ultimately, we got there. We talked about tweaking our midfield a little bit, but we had to walk that back a little, because LSU was getting too much of the ball based on what were doing. So, we gave our team the freedom when they needed to and to do it a different way. We found a middle ground for our halftime adjustment that worked. And Nic [Hallam] was all over that. We were letting Faith kick it deep every time, and I asked Nic if we could build. And he said we could absolutely build, and Nic told Jill [Martinez] to go back and organize the whole thing for us. And then we built out. That change of attack took a bit of air out of them and reminded us of how we needed to play. It reminded us that we needed to be passing and building out of our own and make them chase it. When we're going direct and they were going direct, it was very SEC style. And we did not want to play that game. LSU is very good at that and a lot of the teams in their league are very good at that. We wanted no part of that. We got it away from that and went back to the way that we like to move the ball. That's when we settled into the second half."

UP NEXT:
The Red Raiders with the victory head to Durham to face top-seeded Duke next Friday (Nov. 22). First touch from Durham is set for 6:30 (ET)/5:30 (CT).