MORGANTOWN, W. Va. - Despite not scoring until the 90th minute, the 20th-ranked Baylor soccer team pulled out a 1-1 draw at 25th-ranked West Virginia on Friday night at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium.
"That was a great game for my team," head coach Marci Jobson said. "The girls just kept hammering away and never stopped believing they could get back into the game."
Senior Dana Larsen's goal with 13 seconds remaining in regulation drew the Bears even with the Mountaineers, before the two teams played two scoreless overtime periods as the match ended in a tie.
Larsen, a native of Mequon, Wis., tallied her eighth goal of the season to keep Baylor (11-1-3, 2-0-2) undefeated in Big 12 play. The score also ended the perfect start to conference play for West Virginia (9-3-4, 5-0-1).
Following a foul by WVU on freshman Bri Campos, Larsen was tasked with taking a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box. The senior didn't hesitate and blasted a shot from 22-yards out around a five-man Mountaineer wall and into the right side of the net.
"With the ref stopping the clock, we got to set the kick up," Jobson said. "Dana just buried it. It was an unbelievable shot. She practices that all of the time, so it was so cool to see her convert."
Larsen now has 26 goals in her Baylor career to tie her with teammate Lisa Sliwinski for fourth on the all-time Baylor scoring list.
Baylor was on the brink of suffering its first loss since Aug. 26, but now with the tie the Bears own an 11-match unbeaten streak. BU trailed at halftime for the first time all season, even though the Bears controlled possession throughout the period and led in shots 8-3 at the break.
"At halftime, we told the girls to just keep doing what they were doing," Jobson said. "They weren't discouraged at halftime."
West Virginia scratched out its goal as Kara Blosser got the Mountaineers on the board in the 26th minute following a flurry of activity in front of the Baylor goal. The scoring chance unfolded as a WVU cross into the six-yard box was punched out by BU goalkeeper Michelle Kloss. The punch failed to clear the ball out of the 18-yard box and Blosser was the beneficiary of that. She gathered in the ball and slotted it past a diving Kloss into the lower-right corner of the goal from 16 yards out.
In the two overtime periods, Baylor continued to put pressure on the WVU defense. Natalie Huggins came close to notching the game-winner in the 97th-minute as she tried to flip a shot over Mountaineer goalkeeper, Sara Keane, from just outside the six-yard box. Keane was able to jump up to make the save. The BU defense held West Virginia without a shot in overtime and outshot the Mountaineers 21-7 in the game.
Larsen led the Bears with seven shots, while Campos, Hanna Gilmore, Huggins and Kat Ludlow each had two.
Kloss earned the draw in goal for Baylor as she made two saves, while only allowing the one goal in 110 minutes of play.
Baylor's strong offensive play was evidenced by the Bears earning 10 corner kicks in the game.
Friday was the first ever meeting between Baylor and West Virginia. BU improved to 5-1-3 on the road and 0-1-1 against ranked foes this season.
The Bears will finish out their three-game road trip by traveling to Stillwater, Okla., to face defending Big 12 champion Oklahoma State (10-4-2, 1-3-2) on Sunday at 4 p.m. The game will be televised live on ESPNU.
"We have to recover right now and get our bodies ready for Sunday," Jobson said. "The good thing is that Oklahoma State played overtime too. We are a deep team. We have players that can come in off the bench and help."
