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LA Tech vs. FAU box score

LA Tech season stats

RUSTON - Louisiana Tech picked a perfect time to come up with its first golden goal of the season and it was a little extra golden on Thursday night.

The match went into overtime at nil-nil as the Lady Techsters could not find the back of the net, hitting the crossbar, hitting the post and the rest being saved by Florida Atlantic's goalkeeper.

It seemed destined for a draw, but with three minutes remaining in the first OT, the FAU keeper made her first mistake of the night fumbling a save which was punched in by Brittany Beddow off the rebound for the 1-0 win in front of a rowdy crowd of 332 fans.

The victory for LA Tech (13-5-2, 5-4-1 C-USA) was the third straight and sealed a spot in the Conference USA Tournament with 16 points.

"The effort, the commitment, the fight, all of it sticks out," head coach Kevin Sherry said. "FAU is a very good team and they gave absolutely everything. We should have scored two or three. They were simple tap-ins and we were missing. I thought maybe it was not going to be our day.

"At the end of regular time though, we knew if we were going to go down, we were going to go down fighting. They all shouted and were committed and with the help of the amazing crowd, we got it done behind some incredible effort."

The first half was played evenly by both teams with little action in the attacking thirds. The game went into halftime with just three total shots on goal. However, the second half provided many of the fireworks.

Kathryn Sloan was on the receiving end of a long ball in the 62nd minute and had a one-on-one opportunity, but her shot went directly at the goalkeeper who saved the ball which trickled to the left. Donya Salomon-Ali then came rushing in and with an open net her touch bounced off the left post keeping the match scoreless.

Sloan had another scoring chance in the 86th minute when her bender from the right wing looked as if it was going to clear the reach of the keeper, but she managed to get enough of a touch to have the ball deflect off the crossbar.

Florida Atlantic's (7-9-4, 2-5-3 C-USA) Sydney Drinkwater went into overtime with seven critical saves, but on LA Tech's end the backline was holding firm and Kylee Seto was matching up with three saves of her own.

Drinkwater came up with another save in the 97th minute on a shot from the top of the box by Nicole Dincau, but she fumbled the ball and Salomon-Ali was there to touch it away and Beddow came into the goalie's box to punch it home for the game-winner.

LA Tech finished the night with a 19-10 shot advantage, 17 of those coming from Sloan, Salomon-Ali and Beddow who played the full game.

FAU's Hildur Hauksdottir led the Owls with four shots, two being on goal.

This marks just the third time in program history that LA Tech advances to the league tournament and the first as a member of C-USA.

"It is a big soccer conference and is a huge achievement," Sherry said. "For all of the work they have done, the players deserve it. We were not picked to make the tournament in the preseason and we started off with a really hard league schedule, but we finished strong."

The Techsters now await the conclusion of the rest of the league matches to determined seeding. They will play on Wednesday, Nov. 5.

For all the latest in LA Tech Soccer, follow them on Twitter (@LATechSOC), Instagram (@LouisianaTechSoccer) and Facebook (LATechSoccer) and on the official athletic website at LATechSports.com.