INSTITUTE, W.Va. – It has been a season of firsts for the West Virginia State University women's soccer team (10-4-1, 9-3-1 MEC) this season. It's the first full season, the first time playing on campus, and now with the 2-0 result over West Virginia Wesleyan (6-7-2, 6-6-1 MEC) on Wednesday, it will also be the first Mountain East Conference Tournament appearance.

"Tonight, we showed how good of a team we are," head coach Lisa Mann said of the win. "We had key players out injured and others stepped right in and were immense. This was the most important game so far in our programs history and we rose to the occasion."

Starters Lainey Armistead and Naomi Waithira were both out for tonight's match. Maria Barbosa entered the starting 11 for the third time this season and Paula Murcia returned to the starting lineup for the first time since Oct. 3^rd.

In the 42^nd minute, Ingrid Barbosa de Castro passed to Cierra Savin on the left wing. Savin then took it all the way down the field and took a shot from the left side of the WVWC penalty area that Bobcat netminder Ally Moore pushed away. Karem Rodrigues gathered up the rebound and took a shot that was blocked but it found Fran Soares-Cupertino charging in on goal. Soares-Cupertino and Moore both raced after the loose ball, but Soares-Cupertino won the foot race, took a tough angle shot, and buried it to give the Yellow Jackets the halftime lead, 1-0.

Ten minutes after halftime ended, Barbosa de Castro took a Yellow Jacket throw-in from right around midfield and got it to Soares-Cupertino. Soares-Cupertino found Brooklyn Pritt all alone around 45 yards from goal. Some fancy footwork gave her a step on her defender, and she got it in the penalty area where Moore charged in and Pritt put it right over her head to give WVSU the insurance goal, 2-0.

In the 75^th minute, WVWC's Paloma Zamora took a cross from Kameron Bonneau within kicking distance of the goal line and Zamora headed it toward the right corner of the goal, but WVSU goalkeeper Laura Galindo got a fingernail on the ball to redirect it out of danger. On the Bobcats' ensuing corner kick, WVWC's Hannah Murphy fired the ball high through the football uprights and the clean sheet remained intact.

Soares-Cupertino was tagged with a yellow card for a hard foul at the 84:22 mark.

The Bobcats didn't get another shot on target for the rest of the night as the Yellow Jacket defense buckled down for the Bobcats' remaining four shots. Two were blocked, one was high and one was wide.

The Yellow Jacket faithful counted down the final ten seconds inside Dickerson Stadium, then when the horn blew, the entire team celebrated the victory at midfield waving a flag that said "WVSU Nation".

"Qualifying for the conference tournament in our first full season is a big achievement and the girls fully deserve it," Mann said.

WVSU took just over half as many shots as the Bobcats did, but were much more accurate. The Yellow Jackets took 10 shots, putting seven of them on target. The Bobcats took 19 shots but only eight of them were on target.

Soares-Cupertino took four shots, put three of them on target and scored once. Pritt put her only shot on goal in the net. Rodrigues took one shot on goal and had an assist. Galindo made eight saves and had her fifth shutout of the season.

WVWC's Makatlyn Tucker took four shots, but only one found its way to Galindo. Paloma Zamora took three shots and forced two saves. Moore made five saves on the night.

WVSU will likely match up against cross-county rivals University of Charleston in the first round of the MEC tournament. The quarter-final matchup will be played on campus sites which means the Yellow Jackets could be hosting the Golden Eagles on Nov. 6 for senior night, then again on Nov. 9 for the MEC tournament if both teams win-out. The tournament runs from Nov. 9-14.

The Yellow Jackets will rest up and head up I-79 to battle with the Fairmont State University Fighting Falcons on Oct. 31^st for a 1 PM clash. Live stats and streaming will be available at mountaineast.tv.