CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Charlotte women’s soccer team fell behind early as Florida Atlantic took advantage of its scoring opportunities to pull out a 3-1 victory over the 49ers Sunday afternoon in the final regular-season home match of the campaign for the Niners. Charlotte locks up a spot in the upcoming Conference USA Championships even though it dropped the decision Sunday.

Also, despite the setback, the Niners are in a second-place tie in the league’s East Division with UAB. Both schools own 14 points; however, the 49ers would have the slight edge in seeding for the Conference USA Tournament based upon their 1-0 head-to-head win Oct. 18 if the bracket was released at this point.

Charlotte (9-6-2, 4-3-2), who has been a second-half team for much of the year, tallied its lone goal during the second 45 minutes again Sunday early in the frame. Senior Brooke Mulloy slipped a cross over the top of the Owls defense, locating junior Amanda Jones who was racing down the left side. Jones redirected the pass with a soft touch just inside the left post past Florida Atlantic goalkeeper Courtney Zwetsch at 48:40.

However, it would be the only time the 49ers would find the back of the net despite holding a 14-to-6 shot advantage. FAU utilized its half-dozen shots by scoring on one-half of them, including its first three attempts.

Claire Emslie netted the Owls’ first goal at 12:59 when she was on the receiving end of a Danelle Nguyen right-side cross. Emslie redirected the pass to the left post behind Charlotte netminder Alex Kubrick.

It would be nearly 11 minutes later before Florida Atlantic (4-10-4, 2-4-3 C-USA) would have another shot, but again, it converted. This time it was Taylor Sorrels racing down the right side. She stopped just before the end line and sent a pass to the top of the six-yard box, which found the head of Amanda Odato high above the Niners backline to extend the margin to a pair at 23:39.

Lastly, the Owls pushed their lead to 3-0 when Sorrels and Emslie teamed to put the ball between the pipes at 25:38. Sorrels crossed her pass to Emslie, who chipped it over Kubrick’s head before the ball took a weird bounce into the net.

Sunday’s contest marked the 100^th in the Charlotte coaching career for John Cullen and was the first meeting between the two schools.

Jones led all players with six shots, including three on-goal, while Emslie topped Florida Atlantic with her four attempts.

The 49ers will conclude the regular season with a 7 p.m. Thursday meeting with Old Dominion in Norfolk, Va.

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