BOWLING GREEN, Ky. -- Sophomore Andrea Larsen's golden goal in the second overtime gave the Lady Toppers a 1-0 win over FIU on a chilly Friday night at the WKU Soccer Complex. WKU improves to 7-4-4 and 3-2-2 in conference play, while FIU drops to 8-8-0 and 4-3-0 in Conference USA.
With just over two minutes remaining in the game, WKU earned back-to-back corner kicks. The final corner was served a short distance to Caitlin Hesse who dribbled in a few feet and shot the ball. The shot was deflected by a FIU defender, but Chandler Clark gained control and fired a shot into the crossbar. When the ball came down, Larsen punched it in with 1:50 remaining on the clock. The goal was Larsen's first career goal.
WKU had multiple chances to put points on the board prior to going to extra periods, but just were not able to get the ball in the net. At the end of the first half, Lauren Moats was able to break free in transition but the ball flew to the keeper for the save. At the end of regulation, Clark had a shot that looked to be in but sailed a hair too high and hit the crossbar.
WKU finished the game with 16 shots and seven on goal. Hesse led the charge with five shots in the game and Iris Dunn, Clark and Moats each added two.
The WKU defense held FIU to only eight shots in the contest. Keeper Allison Leone had two saves in the game and earned her fifth shutout of the season. The clean sheet was the 12th of her career, ranking her third all-time in career shutouts in program history in her sophomore season. Leone's 152 career saves also ranks her third all-time behind WKU legends Meredith Goodson and Libby Stout.
The win earned WKU three crucial points in the conference standings, propelling them to 11 points on the season. FIU was in a three-way tie for second place in the league prior to the match, but drops to a four-way tie for third place with the loss. WKU is currently in a two-way tie for seventh place with Marshall.
The overtime victory was WKU's sixth overtime game this season. The Lady Toppers have accumulated a perfect 2-0-4 record in extra period matches.
WKU goes on the road to Charlotte on Sunday to wrap up the away portion of the 2015 schedule. The Lady Toppers will take on the 49ers at 12:00 PM at Transamerica Field. Sunday's match will be only the second meeting between WKU and Charlotte. The first meeting came last season when Charlotte got a 3-0 win over WKU in Bowling Green. Charlotte dropped Friday night's matchup with Old Dominion, 2-1 in overtime.
Sophomore Martha Thomas leads the 49ers with 11 goals this season, the 11th most season goals in the country. Her 0.79 goals per game rate is good enough for 14th place in the NCAA and her 24 total points on the season stands at 20th in the nation.
