The Lady Toppers’ record improved to 6-6-3 on the year and 4-1-1 in the conference as Arkansas State dropped to 5-11-1 (2-5-1 in SBC action).
“It was just another outstanding effort on the defensive side of the field,” Lady Topper head coach Jason Neidell said. “We didn’t play particularly well, but we found a way to win. I give a lot of credit to our bench for giving us a great spark in the second half.”
After a scoreless first half, the lone goal of the match came in the 62nd minute when Vanessa Lawson found Kalyn O'Shea for her sixth goal of the season. The assist was Lawson’s sixth on the year which ranks fifth-best all-time at WKU.
The Lady Toppers had to use their “outstanding defense” in the last 15 minutes of the match as Arkansas State took four shots and had two corner kicks. “ASU really put it to us in the final 10-15 minutes of the match, but we were able to hang on and weather the storm,” Neidell added.
WKU out shot Arkansas State 11-9 with Christi Banas, Ana Carinena, O'Shea, and Jenna Silverberg each collecting two shots apiece while four ASU players collected two shots each.
Meredith Goodson and Nikki Ryan both saw 45 minutes of action in the goal and combined for four saves. “We all feel very confident in our goalie situation and we just wanted to give both players some action and experience in today’s match,” Neidell said.
This is the first time a Lady Topper soccer team has shutout three teams in-a-row since the middle of the 2003 season when they recorded five straight shutout victories.
Western will look for their fifth win in six matches when they travel to Little Rock, Ark., to take on Arkansas Little Rock Sunday at 1 p.m. (CDT).
