Freshman Caitlin Pickett scored her first career goal in the 92^nd minute to lift the Wyoming women’s soccer team (2-0-0 overall) to a 1-0 overtime victory against the Utah Valley Wolverines (0-2-0 overall) on Sunday afternoon at the Louis S. Madrid.

Utah Valley pushed the pace out of the gate with three early shots on goal, which included two saves by junior goalkeeper Cristina Salazar. The Cowgirls struggled on the offensive side with only one shot in the half. The Wolverines out shot Wyoming 5-1 and had two corner kicks with the score 0-0 after the first 45 minutes.

Wyoming became the aggressor in the first five minutes of the second half with two shots from senior Annika Clayton, which was blocked and hit the post, and one from junior Summer Taube that had her shot saved by Brooklyn Nielsen. Utah Valley had scoring chances in the 54^th minute by Laken Flinders and Breanna McCarter but came up empty handed as well. Despite having six shots on goal in the period by the Cowgirls, the two teams continued to remain scoreless and headed in to extra time.

The Cowgirls hard work would finally payoff in the 92^nd minute of the game. Freshman Kennedy Schomer would be on the end of a pass, pushed it over to senior Brittney Stark who turned around to get a shot on goal but was blocked by Nielsen. Pickett would get the rebound and tapped it in to the back of the next to give UW the 1-0 victory.

“I thought it took us a bit to get in the game, which is something we need to get better at,” head coach Pete Cuadrado said. “We will work on getting a faster start, but the effort was there and to be honest we needed to clean up the way we were playing. We needed to make a more concerted effort and in the second half we did that with the number of shots. A great play by Kennedy (Schomer) to get on the back end of a pass, laid a great ball to Brittney (Stark) who did a good job turning and getting the ball towards the goal and Caitlin (Pickett) being in the right spot to finish it.” 

The Cowgirls outshot Utah Valley 18-9, including 15-4 in the second half. Wyoming put eight shots on goal compared two by the Wolverines and recorded four corner kicks. Salazar, seniors Taylor Burton and Jessie Gentle each played all 93 minutes of the game. Taube recorded a team-high four shots while a trio each had three.

Wyoming returns to the pitch on Friday as it hosts the Northern Iowa Panthers.  Kick-off is set for 4:30 p.m. MT. in the Louis S. Madrid Sports Complex.

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