BUCKHANNON, W.Va. – Regular season champion West Virginia Wesleyan broke up a scoreless tie just 13 seconds before the halftime horn here Friday and went on to a 3-0 victory against West Liberty in a Mountain East Conference Women's Soccer Tournament semifinal at Cebe Ross Field.
    It was a disappointing end to a stirring late-season run by Coach Barry Christmas's Hilltoppers (6-9-4), who came into Friday's match with just one loss in their last seven outings.
    West Liberty had earned its shot against the powerful Bobcats (13-1-3) by winning a thrilling penalty kick shootout against Fairmont State in Tuesday's MEC Tourney opener and battled Wesleyan on fairly equal terms for most of the first 45 minutes.
    The Hilltoppers focused much of their attention on the defensive end against a Bobcat squad that had outscored its MEC opponents by a whopping 48-4 margin during the regular season. That included a 3-0 shutout victory at West Liberty in early October before WLU mounted its late-season surge.
    Wesleyan had difficulty navigating through the Black and Gold defense for much of the first half and the Hilltopper back line yielded few good scoring chances.
    West Liberty counterattacks worked their way deep into the Bobcats' end on several occasions. The Hilltoppers put 3 shots on net in the early going but goalkeeper Chelsea Hubner stopped each one.
    The match remained scoreless until the waning seconds of the half when an unidentified Wesleyan player launched a hard shot from just inside the box that WLU keeper Lauren Hartnell was able to punch away.
    Unfortunately for Hartnell and the Hilltoppers, the ball went right to the foot of the Bobcats' Isabella Salas, who knocked the long rebound into the net from 15 yards out at 44:47 of the half.
    That proved to be all the offense Wesleyan would need. West Liberty was forced to press forward in search of the equalizer when play resumed and the Bobcats took advantage of the extra space in the offensive end to tack on a pair of insurance goals.
    Hartnell finished with 5 saves for WLU while Hubner had 3 saves for the hosts. Wesleyan dominated the stat sheet with a 21-3 edge in total shots, an 8-3 advantage in shots on goal and 4 corner kicks to one for the Hilltoppers.
    The Bobcats will host the winner of Friday's other MEC Tournament semifinal between Notre Dame (Ohio) and Concord in the championship match at 1 p.m. Sunday.
  West Liberty                                       0  0 – 0
W.Va. Wesleyan                                1  2 – 3      WVW: Isabella Salas (unassisted), 44:47      WVW: Makatlyn Tucker (Natalie Prater), 65:08
     WVW: Isabella Salas (unassisted), 75:02      Shots: West Liberty 3, W.Va. Wesleyan 21
     Shots on Goal: West Liberty 3, W.Va. Wesleyan 8
     Saves: West Liberty 5 (Lauren Hartnell 5), W.Va. Wesleyan 3 (Chelsea Hubner 3)
     Corners: West Liberty 1, W.Va. Wesleyan 4
A: 200