Box Score Cedar City, Utah (Oct. 23, 2004) ???C Tied at halftime, Oakland???s women???s soccer team came up with three second half goals, with the game winner coming on Laura Cowham???s (Caledonia, Mich.) penalty kick in the 71st minute, to give OU a 4-2 win over Southern Utah on the road. The win in the last conference match of the season kept Oakland???s hopes for a spot in the Mid-Con Tournament alive, moving the Golden Grizzlies past the Thunderbirds in the Mid-Con standings and eliminating SUU from playoff consideration. Oakland improved to 8-9-0 overall and 3-3-0 in the Mid-Con with the victory while Southern Utah fell to 4-11-0 and 2-4-0. Both team???s had chances early on in the match; with OU getting a pair of looks at an open goal midway through the half. Just after entering the match Christan Wasniewski (Troy, Mich.) missed the empty-net wide and three and a half minutes later Silje Peltopera (Karasjok, Norway) did the same as the match remained scoreless. Peltopera made up for the miss in the 31st minute, winning a battle with the SUU goalkeeper for the ball and putting it into the back of the net from her back to break the deadlock. A little over a minute later the Thunderbirds knotted the score up again when Catherine Johnson intercepted an OU clearing pass and put a shot past the far post. A little over six minutes into the second half Oakland broke the tie once again as Marianne Samdal (Tiller, Norway) took a free kick from Kristi Swaving (Albuquerque, N.M.) and beat the defense for a 2-1 OU lead. Golden Grizzly goalie Jessica Howard (West Bloomfield, Mich.) recorded a great save on a Thunderbird scoring chance eight minutes later, but SUU struck on another chance as Ashley Smith put home a shot to tie the game for a second time at the 63:07 mark. In the 71st minute Southern Utah was called for a tripping foul in the penalty box and Cowham came through, finding the back right corner of the goal for her first career score. Nine minutes later Peltopera got her second score of the match, adding to the Oakland lead when she took a free kick from Katie Arnott (St. John???s, Newfoundland) and slipped it into the net, her fourth goal of the season. Swaving had a chance to put Oakland up by three with five minutes to play, but her shot banged off the post. Southern Utah had a couple of chances in the closing minutes, but Howard saved one shot and another went high as Oakland went on to pick up the critical win. Oakland has two games left in the regular season, both against Big 10 teams. Next Thursday, Oct. 28 the Golden Grizzlies will face the first of those when they travel to West Lafayette, Ind. to take on Purdue at 4 p.m. Eastern.