CHARLESTON, S.C. - Toni Lashley scored a pair of goals, including the clinching shot in the 64th minute as Charleston Southern held off a late surge by Liberty in recording the 3-2 Big South Conference victory on Saturday afternoon at Buccaneer Field.

Lashley recorded her first multi-goal effort on the season, scoring in both the third and 64th minutes for the Lady Bucs (4-6-1, 2-2 BSC) and CSU's defense held strong in the closing minutes as Liberty (8-5, 2-2 BSC) was unable to pull off the comeback in the 3-2 Charleston Southern victory.

"It's been a while since we've had such a young team here and every game is a difficult game from here on out, which makes it very exciting on the field," commented head coach Eric Terrill following the win. "I'm most happy about our defense playing exceptionally well together today. They communicated well, picked up for each other, and their efforts really were a big part in us winning the game."

Liberty took the first shot attempts of the game as the visiting Flames fired on net twice in the first minute of the contest, but Helena Pereira and Brittany Aanderud's attempts were controlled by the CSU defense to keep the guests off the board.

Charleston Southern scored on their opening shot of the game as Lashley placed in her fifth goal of the season, receiving a through ball up the right seam of the defense. The junior forward from Union County, N.C. outraced Liberty goalkeeper Karen Blocker to the ball in the upper right corner of the box and lofted a shot over Blocker's outstretched hands and into the left side of the net for the first goal of the game at the 2:22 mark of the contest.

Liberty continued to threaten as Aanderud launched a shot from 25 yards out less than a minute later that deflected off the crossbar in front of the net, but Cody punched the ball away to keep CSU in the lead.

Charleston Southern had several scoring opportunities over the next 30 minutes. Gina Cox drilled a shot attempt from 18 yards narrowly sailing over the crossbar while Lashley threatened twice more for the Lady Bucs, going one-on-one with Blocker on two occasions. However, she was unable to find net, pushing one attempt high, while missing to the left on her second attempt as the score remained 1-0.

Pereira continued to press the attack for the Flames, launching three shots, but her attempts were stifled by the CSU defensive front. Maddie Boone found the gap in the CSU defense at the 35:49 mark, dribbling the ball through the defense before firing a shot on goal. The shot attempt took a bounce and slid through Cody's hands, into the back of the net to knot the match up at 1 apiece with less than 10 minutes to play in the opening half.

Charleston Southern fought back, taking the final two shots of the half in the last minute of play as Hali Singleton's shot was deflected by Blocker off the crossbar. The rebound was collected by Chelsea Phillips and the redshirt freshman forward picked up her second goal of the season sliding into the box and deflecting the ball into the net for the go-ahead 2-1 goal at the 44:30 mark to send the teams into the halftime break.

The lead doubled at the 63:07 mark as Cox lofted the ball into the box toward Lashley. The junior forward collected the pass and drilled a shot out of reach of the diving Liberty keeper and into the left side of the net to put the score at 3-1.

Liberty continued to fight back, launching seven consecutive shots spanning from the 70:08 mark in the contest to the 80:33 when Rebecca Page came out of a scrum at the top of the box, finding Jaime Bouffard open on the wing. Bouffard's chip cleared Cody's hands as the CSU goalkeeper advanced on the play and settled in the net to cut the lead to within one at 3-2 with less than 10 minutes to play.

Kelly Henion fired two shots in the closing minutes for Liberty, but one sailed high and Cody corralled the other for a save to keep the score the same. Liberty's final scoring attempt came on a corner kick at the 88:31 mark, but Aanderud's serve into the box was knocked away and Rebecca Hollstegge and Kenandra DeSaussure held possession the remainder of the contest for CSU as the Lady Bucs recorded the 3-2 victory in front of the home crowd at Buccaneer Field.

"We've been able to score some goals here and there and we've been working on our subbing patterns, keeping players with energy out on the field," said Terrill about the team's efforts on the season. "Every game in conference counts. Liberty is a very good team, they played really hard, but our team stuck with it, played it out and we pulled out the win."

Charleston Southern remains in Big South play, but returns to the road next week as they travel to the Virginia Military Institute on Thursday, October 4th. Kickoff between the Lady Bucs and the Keydets is set for 4 p.m. in Lexington, Va.