Conway – The Central Arkansas women's soccer team remained unbeaten in Southland Conference play on Friday night, overcoming a one goal deficit to defeat the Southeastern Louisiana Lady Lions 3-2 at the Bill Stephens Complex. The win, combined with an Abilene Christian loss at Stephen F. Austin means that with one win over their final two games, the Bears will lock up the Southland Conference title.

Junior Dayna Mounie opened the match's scoring in the fifth minute, collecting a pass from sophomore Ashley Smith and putting it away to the bottom-left corner from 10 yards out to put Central Arkansas (13-3-1, 8-0-1 SLC) up 1-0. The Bears would struggle to connect for much of the remainder of the first half, with a pair of UCA giveaways leading to goals for the Lady Lions (6-8-2, 3-5-1 SLC). Senior Casey Peacock found an equalizer in the 15^th minute, taking advantage of a Central Arkansas miscue and dribbling to the top of the 18-yard box, where she fired a rocket past a fully-extended Anna Hughes to even the match. Another miscue in the 22^nd minute saw the ball fall to the feet of sophomore Vanessa Arzaluz, who slammed it off of Hughes' outstretched fingers to give SLU the 2-1 lead and put the Bears behind for just the second time in an SLC match this season.

 The Bears would trail for just 17 minutes, as Mounie fed senior Chele Naudin in the 39^th minute. Naudin wound up and fired from 30 yards out, beating SLU keeper Hope Sabadash to the back post to even the match at 2-2 with her second goal of the season.

Coming out of the halftime break, the Bears needed just 34 seconds to find the game-winner. Junior Stacia Carroll played a ball to sophomore Camille Bassett, who made a 30 yard run through the SLU defense and fired from the right-wing, beating Sabadash to the bottom-left for her 13^th goal of the season.

Despite a noticeable uptick in pressure from Southeastern La., the Bears limited the Lady Lions to just a single shot on goal over the remaining 44 minutes to secure the win.

"It's good to be able to come out with the result, even when you don't have your best game," said UCA head coach Jeremy Bishop after the match. "That's a credit to our girls' work. Some of the stuff we were doing wasn't working, from the movement to the passes, it just wasn't quite clicking tonight like it has been, but we still had to work and we still had the commitment to being in the right spots defensively, and just doing the things that you can do by just being plugged into the game."

On the night, the Bears took 19 shots and put 10 of them on goal, led by Bassett, who was on target with all three of her attempts. Naudin, Mounie, and senior Allie Coleman each put a pair of shots on frame, while senior Shelby Wilson put one shot on goal. In goal, Hughes made three saves, while sophomore Lauren Mercuri made one save.

Over the past three games, the Bears have scored 10 goals, with seven players contributing those strikes. "I think it makes us have dimensions," said Bishop of the parity in the Bears' attack of late. "It makes it to where the other team can't just focus in on one thing, and it should give our players confidence that everybody can make a difference in the game, and that anyone can be the one to put the ball in the net."

With just two games remaining in the regular season, Central Arkansas is the only team in the league with less than two losses. The Bears will host Nicholls (6-6-2, 3-4-2 SLC) at 1:00 PM on Sunday afternoon, before closing out the regular season against Northwestern State (9-6-1, 6-2-1 SLC) at 7:00 PM next Friday night.

"We've got to move the ball quick on Sunday," said Bishop. "We have to be really away of their counter-attack, so that means not moving to many numbers forward, and we have to move the ball really quickly in the attacking third to break them down because they're going to have a lot of numbers in front of the goal."