Box Score MIAMI, Fla. (Sept. 28, 2012) – The FIU women's soccer team (5-5-1, 2-1-0 SBC) suffered its first conference loss of the season, falling to the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders (8-3-0, 3-0-0 SBC), 3-1, on Friday night at the FIU Soccer Stadium.
"You never want to lose at home let alone a conference game at home," Head Coach
Thomas Chestnutt said. "We will have to deal with the loss tonight and get ready for WKU. I thought the girls fought hard in the second half. We dug ourselves a little ditch in the first half. We had some bad plays on our part. I give credit to Middle Tennessee for taking advantage of our early mistakes. They executed when they had to and made us pay for it. We have to put this behind us and get ready for Sunday. "
The Blue Raiders jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 20th minute when Kate Loye struck a low, line-drive shot from the top of the area. The shot, which went near post, skipped past FIU goalkeeper
Kaitlyn Savage for Loye's fifth goal of the season.
Junior
Chelsea Leiva nearly tied the game in the 25th minute. On a breakaway from the left side, Leiva got behind the Blue Raider defense on a through ball by from defender
Nikki Rios. With just the goalkeeper to beat, Leiva chipped a shot that sailed just wide of the goal.
Middle Tennessee extended its lead in the 29th minute when Paige Goeglein scored her eighth goal of the season, corralling a rebound off of a shot by Loye. Savage, who made a diving save on Loye's point-blank shot inside the six-yard box, was out of position to make the save on Goeglein's shot, resulting in the 2-0 advantage for the Blue
Raiders. Loye and Regina Thomas were credited with assists on the play.
FIU got on the board when Leiva headed in her sixth goal of the season in the 42nd minute. On a corner by freshman
Madlen Weinhardt, Leiva redirected a perfect header past MT goalkeeper Jessica Gilchrist. Weinhardt was credited with her fifth assist of the season on the goal.
"I think getting the goal just before the half was huge and got us back in the match," Chestnutt said. "We had chances to equalize but, we just didn't pull it off."
The Panthers went into halftime energized off of Leiva's goal. FIU came out the in second half, creating a number of chances to tie the game. But, could not fine the back of the net.
The Blue Raiders produced an insurance goal in the 86th minute on a penalty kick by Charity Blair. A foul in the box by the Panther's defense resulted in Blair scoring her second goal of the season.
Middle Tennessee held onto to its two-goal advantage to hand FIU its first home loss of the season.
On the night, the Blue Raiders held a 16-15 advantage in shots, while FIU took eight corner kicks to Middle Tennessee's seven.
Savage suffered her fifth loss of the season, allowing three goals in 90 minutes of action, while MT's Gilchrist earned her third win of the season, making six saves on the night.
The Panthers will host the WKU Hilltoppers on Sunday, Sept. 30, at the FIU Soccer Stadium. Game time is 1:00 p.m.
About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including U.S. Century Bank Arena and Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium.
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools off
er more than 180 bachelors, masters and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU is worlds ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission and enrolls nearly 50,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. More than 140,000 alumni live and work in South Florida. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.
