The Barton women's soccer team converted a late penalty kick as the Bulldogs defeated Belmont Abbey 1-0 this afternoon at Alumni Field. Belmont Abbey outshot the Bulldogs 18-12, including 11-5 in the first half, but a foul in the box led to Emily Futral's conversion. Belmont Abbey drops to 8-3-1 overall and 4-1-1 in Conference Carolinas, while Barton improves to 8-4-0 overall and 3-2-0 in league play.

Belmont Abbey had the best scoring chances in the first half, but Carson Moore made four saves for the Bulldogs, the best one coming with about 20 minutes left on the clock when Jillian Lang's chip sailed over her head, but she retreated and just tapped the ball over the crossbar at the last second.

A previous Abbey chance came on a service from Melissa Pereira, who lifted a ball to the center of the goal mouth where Ananda Gebreyesus raced towards it. Before she could get there, however, a Barton defender lifted the ball over the net to lead to a Crusader corner kick, one of five the Abbey attempted in the opening half.

Both teams finished with seven shots in the second half and had chances to score. Hannah Kohls stopped two Barton attempts from eight yards out, as she swatted the first one away and then raced back and did the same on the second attempt.

Belmont Abbey had two chances to score late, as Meghan Philp got behind the defense, but her shot from a tough angle, from eight yards away, sailed high and right.

The Bulldogs scored the only goal of the match on a penalty kick in the 88th minute as Kohls was whistled for pushing a defender in the back inside the box.

Futral stepped up to the spot and went right, which Kohls had guessed, but the shot eluded her arm for the score.

The Crusaders increased its pressure to attempt to get level, but they could not get off a shot as Barton sealed the win.

Kohls made two saves for the Abbey, both on the two shots described above. Moore stopped two shots.