Erin McLeish

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — In their second overtime game of the season, the Wittenberg women's soccer team emerged as 3-2 winners in a heated regional battle with Transylvania, moving to 8-2-1 overall on the season heading into the North Coast Athletic Conference slate this weekend.

Tiger senior defender Erin McLeish (Dublin, Ohio/Scioto) won the game when her line-drive free kick found the net from 30 yards with just 34 seconds remaining in the first overtime. The goal came after 99:26 of hard-fought soccer in which the teams totaled 26 shots and each posted six saves.

The winning goal was McLeish's third of the season, and was one of two Tiger scores that seemingly came by surprise. In the 64th minute, a cross to the goal mouth from junior forward Megan Utter (Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids) fell to junior forward Taylor Goss (Sandy Spring, Md./Friends School) in heavy traffic in front of the goal. Goss ejected the ball to the top of the penalty box for sophomore forward/midfielder Kailey Striebel (Kettering, Ohio/Fairmont), who hit the top shelf to tie the game at 2-2.

The Tigers fought from behind twice in the game, first when the Pioneers opened the scoring with a breakaway goal early in the first period. The score stood 1-0 for the remaining 34 minutes of the first half and eight minutes into the second.

Wittenberg evened things up in the 53rd minute on a goal by sophomore defender/forward Kelly Brothers (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome), who ran onto a right-side through-ball from Striebel. Five minutes later, Transylvania took a 2-1 lead on a rebound at short range, before Striebel hit the equalizer from Goss.

Finished with their non-conference slate for the season, the Tigers open the North Coast Athletic Conference portion of the 2010 campaign with a home match versus Ohio Wesleyan at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 2.

John Strawn '07