Bowling Green, Ky. - The WKU Lady Toppers dropped their last regular season home match to South Alabama Sunday afternoon, 0-2. The Lady Toppers fall to 8-7-2 overall and 6-4 in the Sun Belt Conference.
"This weekend we just didn't play with enough intensity," head coach Jason Neidell stated. "Soccer is a tough game, sometimes you feel like you control the game and lose while other times you might win and you weren't controlling the game. It is hard to score unless you can do the simple things well and take care of the details."
The Lady Toppers outshot South Alabama 14-9, but late goals for the Jaguars gave South Alabama the victory. The Lady Toppers controlled the majority of the match but fell short in the end. South Alabama scored their first goal in the 84th minute of action and their second four minutes later. Junior forward Mallory Outerbridge led the Lady Toppers with three shots on goal, sophomore midfielder Sydney Sisler tallied three shots and one on goal. Junior goalkeeper Libby Stout made four saves in the match, two in each period.
WKU controlled the first half, opening with the first three shots, two of them by Sisler. The Lady Toppers only allowed South Alabama to post three shots in the first half. In the 38th-minute of action, South Alabama drilled a shot on goal as Stout came up with a big save to keep the game knotted 0-0. A scoreless 45 minutes of action, the Lady Toppers posted eight shots with five on goal, holding South Alabama to two shots on goal.
The second half opened as Sisler posted a shot on goal in the first 50 seconds of the half, followed by a shot by Outerbridge. In the 71st minute, sophomore forward Laura Ray took the ball from a cornerkick opportunity around in front of the goal, drilling a shot that hit the top of the post. The Lady Toppers tallied their last three shots on goal before South Alabama shifted the momentum. In the 84th-minute South Alabama's Kasey Crowe scored the first goal from in front of the box, kicking it in the right side of the goal, just past Stout. A short four minutes later South Alabama's Natalie Parsons snuck one in past Stout for their second goal, to close-out the match.
WKU had eight cornerkick opportunities while South Alabama had two. The Lady Toppers battled with eight shots in the first half, holding South Alabama to three, while tying at 6-6 for shots in the second half. Outerbridge and Sisler led the Lady Toppers in shots with three each.
Up Next: The 2010 WKU Lady Topper soccer team (8-7-2, 6-4 SBC) will hit the road for their final regular season match Friday against Middle Tennessee at 7 p.m. The Sun Belt Conference Tournament begins November 3rd at the WKU Soccer Complex. Tournament standings will be released following Friday's Sun Belt Conference match-ups.
