TAMPA - - Sophomore Chelsea Klotz took advantage of a DePaul turnover deep in Blue Demon territory and sent home the game winner with 6:10 remaining to propel the fifth seeded University of South Florida women's soccer team to a 1-0 victory over  DePaul in the first round of the 2009 BIG EAST Tournament .

Klotz corralled the loose ball just outside the 18-yard box and beat the diving DePaul keeper to her left for the unassisted goal. The goal was Klotz's ninth goal of the season and her fifth game-winner of the season.

Klotz nearly gave the Bulls a 1-0 lead early in the second half but after she beat the Blue Demon keeper she was whistled for being off sides and the goal was negated.

After DePaul opened the match with a furious rush, the Bulls gained composure and asserted themselves in the possession battle and would move the Ball numerous times into the DePaul field throughout the first half taking eight shots to DePaul's four with two of them being on goal.

The USF defense was brilliant all night limiting the DePaul attack to just four shots on goal all night and completely shutting down DePaul leading scorer Tara Strickland. The backline of Molly Stack, Angelique Waller and Brittany Pilon was suffocating denying countless 1v1 attacks from DePaul.

Making her 55th consecutive start, senior Mallori Lofton- Malachi delivered her 22nd career shutout  and sixth of the season by making four saves as she was instrumental in weathering six DePaul corner kicks.

Klotz was definitely the most active Bull on the offensive end taking eight of the Bulls shots in the match and five of the Bulls six shots on goal. Klotz showed no ill effects of playing the entire 90 minutes for the first time in her career.

The Bulls improved their record to 9-7-2 on the season and 6-4-2 against BIG EAST opposition. The win is the first ever for the Bulls in BIG EAST postseason play.

With the win the Bulls move on to the BIG EAST Quarterfinals and will travel to South Bend, Ind. to take on the No. 6 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Sunday, Nov. 1 at 1 p.m.

Match Notes
USF was without starters Sophomores Rehana Murani and Gina Pacheco, freshman Taylor Patterson, and redshirt freshman Bahar Sansar. All four players were with the U-20 Canadian National team competing for a roster spot on the countries World Cup Roster... Starting in their place were sophomores Chantelle Goodson and Molly Stack and true freshmen Kelly Campbell and Taylor Brown... The start for Brown was the first of her career and the second for Campbell... Senior goalkeeper Mallori Lofton-Malachi made her 55th consecutive start in goal tonight... Klotz's goal was the 13th of her career and seventh game winner... Klotz now has a team best nine goals on the season and leads the team in total points with 19... Her nine goals is the most since Lindsay Brauer had nine in 2006... She is now tied with Lindsay Brauer with 13 career goals which is good for sixth place in USF history... USF is now 3-8 in postseason matches... Playing without four starters, the six starters were forced to play the entire 90 minutes...