Hillsboro, Kan. – The McPherson College women's soccer team dropped a heartbreaker on Wednesday, on the road, to the Tabor College Bluejays, 3-2, in overtime.
The Bulldogs played great soccer for 88:18 minutes of the game. They took the lead in the 35
th minute when
Emma Singleton broke scoreless tie finishing on a cornerkick served up by
Trinity Tovar. Moments later, the two hooked up again on another cornerkick to make the score two nil in favor of the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs would take that lead into the halftime intermission and then for 44 minutes and 56 seconds of the second frame. Tabor has two forwards that are lightening quick and can finish well. The Bulldogs, for the most part did an excellent job of containing them, but late in the game their speed became an issue for the Bulldog defense.
With 1:42 on the clock, the Bluejays' Lacey Hieserman-Graves won a foot race with the Bulldog back line, got just enough of her foot on the ball and poked it past
Lauren Kunda, in goal for the Bulldogs. Amazingly, with just four seconds left on the clock, Hieserman-Graves did it again, getting in behind the Bulldog defense and slotting the equalizer.
In disbelief at their quick change of fortunes, the Bulldogs tried to regroup to start the overtime session. Unfortunately the momentum had swung in favor of the home team, and Hieserman-Graves capped off her amazing game with a hat trick, scoring the game winning goal just a minute and a half into the first overtime session.
Coach Olson summed up the match saying, "Tonight's game is a great example of how you play to the end and as long as there is time on the clock the game is not over. I'm not disappointed in these players. They gave their all the entire game, the ball just happened to bounce in Tabors favor at the end of the game. It was nice to see that we finished on a couple of corner kicks. That is something that we emphasized in training yesterday. This team will learn from this experience and we will be ready to play Saint Mary's on Saturday."
With their first loss of the season, the Bulldogs are now 2-1 overall, and 1-1 in KCAC play. They will look to right the ship on Saturday when they host the University of St. Mary Spires at Paul Family field for a 12:30 kickoff.
