LSU ranked No. 14 in initial NCAA RPI soccer ranking

BATON ROUGE – LSU Soccer has certainly been one of the hottest teams in the country with seven wins from its first eight matches to start the season, and the Tigers were confirmed among the nation’s top teams Monday with a No. 14 ranking in the NCAA’s first Ratings Percentage Index of the campaign.

The Tigers matched their best ever start to a season with seven-straight wins before suffering their first defeat of the year on Sunday against Vanderbilt in their Southeastern Conference opener.

LSU already boasts a marquee win on its NCAA Tournament resume with a 1-0 shutout of Cincinnati last Thursday night as the Bearcats checked in at No. 20 in the NCAA’s initial RPI of the season. The Tigers currently sit as the fourth-highest-ranked team in the SEC as the conference boasts No. 1 South Carolina, No. 9 Florida and No. 11 Tennessee to tie the Atlantic Coast Conference with the most top-15 teams in the index.

The SEC also currently features eight top-50 teams while 13 of the 14 programs in the league are among the RPI’s Top 100. Two of those top-50 teams are on the schedule this week as LSU looks to bounce back from its defeat on Sunday with matches at No. 36 Alabama on Thursday night at 7 p.m. CT and at home against No. 47 Mississippi State on Sunday at 3 p.m.

NCAA’s Women’s Soccer RPI Top 25 (as of Sept. 18)
1. South Carolina
2. Stanford
3. Texas
4. Central Florida
5. North Carolina
6. Duke
7. Rutgers
8. Princeton
9. Florida
10. West Virginia
11. Tennessee
12. Wisconsin
13. NC State
14. LSU
15. Wake Forest
16. Washington
17. Clemson
18. Virginia
19. UCLA
20. Cincinnati
21. Notre Dame
22. Purdue
23. Loyola Marymount
24. Saint Louis
25. Penn State