WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women's soccer team pulled out a thrilling Mountain East Conference Tournament victory here Tuesday afternoon, edging Fairmont State in a penalty kick shootout at the West Liberty Soccer Complex.
    Coach Barry Christmas's No. 2-seeded Hilltoppers (6-8-4) and the No. 3-seed Falcons (8-8-4) were unable to dent the scoreboard during 90 minutes of regular time and two 10-minute extra time periods, forcing the shootout.
    Christmas, the founding coach of the WLU women's program, had come out on the short end of another MEC Tournament shootout two years ago, but saw that as more of a positive than a negative.
    "Our seniors lost in a shootout at Notre Dame when they were sophomores," Christmas said. "I think that experience stood them in pretty good stead today. They had been here before."
    The tension rose step-by-step as the first five shooters from each squad converted. Both teams missed their sixth attempt but cashed in their seventh to keep the shootout going. But Fairmont missed on its eighth try, as well, to leave the door open for the hosts.
    Sophomore forward Kaelyn Oskin, who sat out last season due to injury after leading the Hilltoppers in scoring two years ago, stepped forward on the referee's whistle to rip the ball past diving FSU keeper Isabelle Vaccari and send the Black and Gold into the MEC Tournament semifinals.
    "There's no strategy in choosing the shooters from my end," Christmas said. "I just ask for volunteers. The way I see it, if you've got the grit to want to take it with the game on the line and everybody cheering, you've got the sand to make it. The great thing about this group is that I have far more volunteers than shooting spots. That really speaks well of their character."
    That character was tested throughout an evenly-played match that featured several solid scoring opportunities for each side.
    West Liberty finished with a slight 15-14 advantage in shots to go along with a more significant 7-2 edge in shots on goal but Hilltopper netminder Lauren Hartnell and her defensive mates along the back line were forced to short-circuit several Falcon scoring chances on well-struck crosses into the box.
    The Black and Gold had no better luck against Fairmont State keeper Isabelle Vaccari, who turned aside all 7 of West Liberty's shots on frame to keep the match scoreless.
    West Liberty heads to Buckhannon on Friday to take on top-seeded and regionally-ranked West Virginia Wesleyan in a 1 p.m. match. The Bobcats have been one of the most dominant teams in the region throughout the season, outscoring their opponents by a whopping 48-4 margin while posting a 12-1-3 record.
    Wesleyan handed WLU a 3-0 setback in their only regular-season meeting earlier this month but Christmas is looking forward to the opportunity.
    "I'm very proud of our girls for the way they've responded this season," Christmas said. "We had some tough overtime losses in the early going but we were able to grind things out and find some different ways to win down the stretch.
    "We've won on last-minute goals; we've come back from being down 2-0 to win with less than 3 minutes to play; we've won in overtime and now we've won in a shootout so I guess we're soccer's version of the late, late show. The best thing about it is we get to practice again tomorrow and play another match on Friday. This is a pretty special day for our program."
  Fairmont State                         0  0  0  0 – 0
West Liberty                              0  0  0  0 – 0      FSU: Whitlatch-Y; Wilson-Y; Welch-Y; Johnson-Y; Kaylor-Y; Fowler-N; Altland-Y; Bryant-N
     WLU: Ly.Hartnell-Y; Bodnar-Y; Smith-Y; Evans-Y; Daubenspeck-Y; Lolua-N; Taylor-Y; Oskin-Y      Shots: West Liberty 15, Fairmont State 14
     Shots on Goal: West Liberty 7, Fairmont State 2
     Saves: West Liberty 2 (Lauren Hartnell 2), Fairmont State 7 (Isabelle Vaccari 7)
     Corners: West Liberty 4, Fairmont State 4
A: 300