FIU women’s soccer drops to .500 in conference play

Santiago Archieri/ Contributing Writer

FIU women’s soccer (8-9, 4-4 C-USA) was shut out twice over the weekend in their road trip to Western Kentucky (8-4-4, 4-2-2 C-USA) and Marshall (11-3-3, 4-2-2 C-USA).

After having such a stellar home performance in which the Panthers shut their opponents out in back to back games, the Panthers looked lost on the road and their consistency issues continued to show.

The Panthers trip began at Western Kentucky, where a double-overtime thriller resulted in a 1-0 loss, as the Lady Hilltoppers outshot the Panthers 16-8 in total shots.

Western Kentucky went on to dominate in overtime. The Lady Hilltoppers had an overwhelming amount of shots on the Panthers and after in the second overtime it was Caitlin Hesse of Western Kentucky who ended the game in the 109th minute after a great look.

Western Kentucky ended the Panthers’ two game winning streak and FIU headed to Marshall for the second game of the weekend.

The floodgates remained open for FIU in a loss against Marshall. After a scoreless first half, the Panthers and Thundering Herd were not leveled for much longer.

Kelly Culicerto of Marshall scored the first and only goal of the game in the 60th minute after a beautiful strike from 18 yards out.

The Panthers did have great opportunities to get on the board, but two shots from Ellen Crist were to no avail and the Panthers went on to lose 1-0.

FIU has no dropped to under .500 yet again on the season. The Panthers have not a won a game on the road since September 6, when they beat Miami (OH) 1-0, which marked FIU’s lone road win this season. FIU looks to bounce back strong as they face rival Florida Atlantic University for their final home game of the season on Sunday, Oct. 25.