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BATON ROUGE – The LSU soccer team (7-5-1, 2-2-1 SEC) shut out Missouri (4-7-1, 1-4-0) on Thursday night at the LSU Soccer Stadium by a final score of 1-0 to secure their second conference win in back-to-back matches.

Forward Morgan Witz secured the win for LSU with the lone goal of the night in the 74th minute, which gave the home Tigers a 1-0 victory. Tiger goalkeeper Sophine Kevorkian tallied her third shutout of the season in between the posts for LSU in her ninth start of the season.

“We asked a lot of questions of them (Missouri) tonight. Their goalkeeper came up with some big saves, but we just kept plugging away,” said Head Coach Sian Hudson. “We kept winning the possession battle, and I think we got our rewards with a great finish from Morgan Witz.

"Natalie (Dvorakova) and Daniela (Hellín) made the goal, but what a great header by Morgan to seal the three points for us. There’s no easy games in this conference, so we’re happy to get two back-to-back wins.”

LSU got the first shot on frame of the match in the 23rd minute when a Missouri defender cleared the ball out of the box directly to an approaching Ava Amsden, who ripped a shot from the edge of the box towards the top left corner of the goal.

It took an acrobatic leap from Missouri goalkeeper Kate Phillips to make the save, keeping the match scoreless.

The Tigers controlled possession for the majority of the first half, taking eight shots – three on goal – and attempting eight corners.

The LSU defense held Missouri without a shot in the first 45 minutes and it was 0-0 at the halftime break.

Both teams continued to fight for that opening goal throughout the second half. Ida Hermannsdottir and Ava Galligan took attempts, but nothing strong enough to get past the Missouri keeper.

It wasn’t until the 74th minute that LSU was able to execute on a chance. Tiger defender Natalie Dvorakova received the ball from Daniela Hellín from just outside the box.

Dvorakova sent a perfect cross into the center of the Missouri box and right to the head of an open Witz.

Witz’s header flew to the top left corner of the goal, past the outstretched goalkeeper, and into the back of the net to get LSU on the board. 

The goal was Witz’s third of the season while Dvorakova and Hellín earned the first assists of their collegiate careers.

The LSU defense held strong for the remainder of the game, limiting Missouri to six total shots by the end. Kevorkian made two saves on the day, moving her tally to 25 on the year.

LSU won the possession battle on the day 63-37%, defending their home pitch before heading on the road to No. 17 Georgia this weekend.

The Tigers will battle the ranked bulldogs in Athens on Sunday, October 5th at 5 p.m. CT on SEC Network+.

This article first appeared on LSU Tigers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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