BOX SCORE

The High Point University women's soccer team fell in overtime to No. 5-seed Liberty by a score of 2-1 in the Big South Championship quarterfinals on Thursday in Charleston, S.C. Sophomore Kelli Joline scored the HPU goal to help send the game to OT.

“I am very proud of our players," head coach Marty Beall said. "I thought from the beginning to the end of the game we played great soccer under very difficult field conditions. Give credit to Liberty and their staff. They defended very well and found a way to get the win. I am gutted for my girls and how this game was decided. I couldn't be more proud to be their coach.”

With the loss, High Point finishes the 2011 season with an 8-10-3 record. Liberty improves to 9-7-3 and will advance to play the winner of the game between Radford and UNC Asheville in the Big South semifinals.

The Panthers controlled play early in the game, creating several quality chances. In the 16th minute, sophomore Becca Hemby got loose in the box on the left flank but her shot hit the near post and the follow by Joline was stopped with a diving save by Liberty's Karen Blocker.

The Flames found a goal against the run of play in the 20^th minute as Kelly Henion scored to put Liberty up, 1-0. LU broke out on a counter attack and Aimee Luttsema found space on the right side and lofted a cross to the middle of the box. Henion made her run inside the HPU defender and brought the ball down before scoring from five-yards out.

The goal was the first scored against High Point in a Big South Tournament game since the semifinals of the 2008 tournament when Coastal Carolina pulled out a 1-0 win, a stretch of 667 minutes and 54 seconds.

The Panthers went into halftime trailing by one despite a 6-2 edge in shots and a 5-2 advantage in shots on goal.

The score remained 1-0 until the 65thth minute when Joline scored her team-high ninth goal of the season to knot the game up at 1-1. Joline got the ball at the edge of the box and turned to shoot but her initial attempt was blocked. The sophomore recollected the ball and immediately hit a shot into the top left corner of the net for the score.

HPU had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation when Hemby got free in the box and hit a hard shot to the right post in the 89^th minute. The shot beat Blocker but was cleared off the line by a Liberty defender.

The Flames found the Golden Goal in the 98^th minute of extra time when Helena Pereira scored on a counter attack to give Liberty the 2-1 win. Luurtsema again got the play started for LU with a run on the counter attack and a cross to the left side. Junior Jenny Ashurst was unable to clear the ball which skipped to Pereira who dribbled in on goal before hitting a shot to the far-side netting.