BELMONT, Calif. – The Fresno Pacific University women's soccer team entered Thursday in first place in the PacWest standings, with a matchup against second-place Notre Dame de Namur on tap. The Sunbirds (5-2-0, 3-0-0) came away with a 2-1 overtime victory to remain unbeaten in league action and now have won five of their last six contests.

"This was one of those games where both teams worked hard and either team could have won. I'm proud of our girls for fighting through a mentally challenging game," head coach Rob Podeyn said. "We have the ambition and belief that we can compete in our conference and in order to do that, we have to be able to win critical games on the road against teams like this. We continue to get better each week."

After Argonaut keeper Abigail Cebrero cleared the ball off line in the 17th minute, Sassy Weigant put the Sunbirds on the board first with a shot right over Cebrero. Fresno Pacific carried a 1-0 advantage into the locker room at the intermission, but Samantha Sanchez scored off a corner kick in the 63rd minute to pull NDNU even.

The first eight minutes of the overtime period saw just two total shots, both of which were taken by FPU. The 99th minute proved to be the difference, as Paige Jano connected with freshman Rachel Anderson, who slipped a shot in just under the crossbar to lift the Sunbirds to their third straight conference win.

The Blue and Orange have now defeated NDNU in each of the last two seasons after dropping seven of the first eight decisions and tying in the other. The Sunbirds look to continue their winning ways on Saturday, when they take on Dixie State on the road at 7:00 p.m.

"Dixie State has played a strong schedule and are trying to bounce back from the way their season has started. They will be focused and give us all we can handle," Podeyn said. "We can't be fooled by their record. Hopefully, we can go there and come out with the result that we want."