BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The College of Charleston women's soccer team suffered its first loss of the Southern Conference season in a 2-1 overtime heartbreaker at Samford on Friday evening. The Bulldogs captured the game winner in the 97th minute.

CofC falls to 6-5-0 (2-1-0 SoCon) with the loss while Samford improves to 4-5-1 (2-0-1 SoCon).

"We were so good on both sides of the ball and really deserved a win tonight," said head coach Christian Michner. "Samford is a great team and played excellent as well but we played well as a team and created a ton of chances. We doubled them in shots and put 10 of our shots on frame which is fantastic. It was just a great performance all around. We were really unfortunate not to win but sometimes in soccer you need a bit of luck."

The Bulldogs captured the game's first lead in the 18th minute when Brittany Hoffman slotted Joy Grove on the right side and Grove beat the keeper to her left side.

The Cougars outshot the Bulldogs, 7-3, in the opening period but went into the break trailing by the one goal.

CofC equalized in the second half on a 56th minute mark by Alli Brashear. Brashear's first attempt went off the post but she collected her own rebound and tucked the ball into a gaping net.

The teams battled out the remainder of regulation without a goal to either side. The Cougars had a 17-7 shot advantage after 90 minutes.

The game winner came seven minutes into the overtime period. Kaley Blanton sent a cross into the box where Sarah Wilkinson touched it past the keeper and into the net to end the match.

The Cougars stay on the road to play at Chattanooga on Sunday, Oct. 2 at 2 p.m.

"I think we can take a lot out of this one," said Michner. "We played very well and can take a lot of solace in our performance. It wasn't the result we hoped for but we'll be better from this game.

"It's going to be a quick turnaround before we play another good team in 36 hours but we have to lace our boots up and put in a similar effort and look to go out and get three points."