Aside from wanting to capitalize on its chance to possibly move atop the Sun Belt Conference standings, the WKU soccer team has other motives for playing well this weekend.

Heading into Friday’s game against Florida International (4-0 Sun Belt), the Lady Toppers (3-1 Sun Belt) have come away with just one win in the Sunshine State in program history.

WKU beat FIU on the road in 2006.

The Lady Toppers will have the chance to triple that mark thanks to a match at Florida Atlantic (2-2 Sun Belt) on Sunday.

Head Coach Jason Neidell said he just recently recalled WKU’s track record in Florida.

“That’s shocking to me. I didn’t even realize that,” Neidell said. “To go down there and win two games this weekend would be a tremendous feat for our program.”

FIU — which won the conference title last season after posting a 9-1-1 record within the Sun Belt — returns eight starters from last year’s team.

“They’ve always been a good team defensively … very organized and a very hard team to break down and create chances against,” Neidell said.

He added that the Golden Panthers have “real attacking flare” on this year’s team.

“That gives us an added challenge that we haven’t seen from them in the past,” he said.

Freshman defender Katrina Ott said the Lady Toppers really want to win both games this weekend, and that it’s not underestimating FAU.

“I think that’s an attainable goal,” Ott said. “We just have to keep our focus.”

Neidell said that this weekend’s pair of games is “probably the most challenging” of the season.