WAYNESBURG, Pa. – The Franciscan women's soccer team battled back to 2-2 tie but a late penalty kick lifted the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets to a 3-2 win, Monday evening.

Down 2-0 for most of the first half, junior Clare Kennedy got the Lady Barons on the board as time expired with her fourth goal of the season off a pass from classmate Megan Riederer and cut the lead to 2-1 as the two teams went into the break.

The score remained the same for the first 15 minutes of the second half until Franciscan found its equalizer from Megan Luiso. The junior collected a pass from classmate Anna McCarty and beat the Yellow Jacket keeper to time the game at 2-2.

"We had a really tough injury in the first half but the girls rallied together and played some of the best soccer I have seen from them this season," complimented head coach Clare McBane. "The improvement is there. The build up through the middle is great. It's just between the 18s that we need to work on executing. We'll get there."

The Lady Barons tested the Waynesburg goalie with a barrage of shots but could not break the tie.

With less than 10 minutes to go, the Lady Barons were called for a foul just inside the box and Waynessburg was awarded a penalty kick. The Yellow Jacket shot high to the right and a leaping Sarah Luebking could not bring down the ball, despite a phenomenal effort.

The Lady Barons had one final attempt at the net with just eight seconds left on the clock, and with the goalie out of position, the Lady Barons put a beautiful ball on goal but the Waynesburg backline helped out the goalie and made the save to preserve the win.

"The improvement is there each game," remarked coach McBane. "It's just heartbreaking to see the girls work so hard each game and make improvements every time we get on the field and not come away with the win."

The Lady Barons and Waynesburg were evenly matched on the stat sheets with the Yellow Jackets holding  a slim 11-10 advantage in shots. "The shot count definitely does not reflect the opportunities we had," reflected coach McBane. "Hats off to Waynesburg-they were a good team and definitely took advantage of the opportunities they had."

"One thing that I want the girls to learn from this game is to be more effective with the opportunities you get. We were not as effective as we could have been and that's the way you win a game."

"I am really proud of the girls to come back like they did. It's not easy to come back from a 2-0 hole, but this game speaks to their heart and effort to come back from that and tie it up. Not every team can do that. I can't express enough how proud I am of this team."

Franciscan travels to Washington & Jefferson on Wednesday for a 7pm game to wrap up the non-conference portion of the schedule.