ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University women's lacrosse team secured the program's first victory over Calvin University in overtime by the score of 14-13.
The Knights started off the contest on the offensive scoring two goals in the first three minutes of the game to take a 2-0 lead.
The Thunder would respond with their first goal of the contest just over three minutes into the contest. Senior Liv Ghent (Byron Center, Mich. / Caledonia) scored the first goal off of a pass from freshman Calista Richmond (Portage, Mich. / Portage). The pair would lead the way offensively throughout the contest for the team.
Ghent would tie the game with just under seven minutes remaining in the first quarter on a free position goal. Calvin took back the lead just outside of four minutes remaining.
The next pair of goals would belong to Trine, first by Ghent and then by Richmond, giving the team their first lead of the game at 4-3. A final goal for the Knights would tie the game as the team headed into the first break.
The Thunder went to work in the second period. They would need to take the lead twice in the first ten minutes of the period, first on a goal by junior Ella Dougherty (Lowell, Mich. / Lowell) at 5-4 and then by sophomore Nikki Hibler (West Lafayette, Ind. / Harrison) at 6-5.
Richmond and sophomore Danielle Gargiulo (Downers Grove, Ill. / Downers Grove) would added two more for the team in the final minutes of the half building the lead to 8-5 heading into the intermission.
The Knights cut the deficit to one in the first four minutes of the second half before Trine scored three straight to build their biggest lead of the contest at 11-7. Ghent joined freshman Brooke Hoag (Portage, Mich. / Portage) and sophomore Alyssa Keptner (Midland, Mich. / H.H. Dow) in scoring those goals with Richmond assisting on two and Gargiulo on the third.
Calvin would start a comeback attempt in the final two minutes of the period scoring two goals. All told they would score five straight goals to take their first lead of the second half with 6:32 minutes remaining in the contest at 12-11. Trine would knot the game just 20 seconds later when Hoag scored her second of the day.
The Knights took back the lead with just over four minutes remaining. Still trailing 13-12 with under two minutes remaining in regulation, Trine would call a timeout to set up their final offensive attack, they would pull their goalie in favor of extra pressure in the offensive zone. For just over a minute the team worked on offense before Ghent scored her fifth and perhaps most important goal of the day tying the game with just 43 seconds remaining.
Calvin would win the resulting draw control and moved into their offensive zone earning a free position shot with just nine seconds remaining, which they missed sending the game to overtime.
Both teams would have chances during the first half of overtime, but the goal came with just one second remaining before the break and it belonged to Hoag who fired the shot into the goalie with enough force to have it sneak passed and slide across the goal line.
Senior Jillian Rejczyk (Wauconda, Ill. / Wauconda) played the whole game in net for the Thunder and turned in eight crucial saves to help secure the victory. She also led the team with seven groundballs.
Gargiulo finished the game leading the team with four caused turnovers with senior Madison Howard (Stockbridge, Mich. / Stockbridge) coming in second with three. Gargiulo also finished in second with four groundballs.
Offensively Ghent led the team with five goals in the contest, while Richmond came in with six assists and two goals. Hoag finished with three goals including the game winner.
Trine improves to 6-2 overall and 1-0 in Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) play following the victory.
