HIRAM, Ohio – The Franciscan women's soccer team need 103 minutes to determine a winner in the season opener against Westminster (Pa.), though the Lady Barons came out on the wrong side of a 2-1 2OT decision, Saturday night.

3:47 into the second overtime period, Westminster tallied the deciding goal as Kayla Trozzi took a pass from Keely Birsic to hand the Titans their first win of the brand new season.

"We had a lot of scoring chances, they had a lot scoring chances and it just comes down to we made one more mistake and they capitalized on that last chance," remarked head coach Clare McBane. "I will say, though, that I am extremely excited about the potential we saw today – it was a very promising game."

Westminster got on the board first late in the first half to take a 1-0 lead with 4:36 to play before half time. With the time quickly ticking off of the clock, the Lady Barons found the equalizer to tie the game 1-1 with 47 seconds left in the half. Senior Sarah Schriner did some nice give and gos to bring the ball up the field and placed it perfectly in the box. Freshman Sarah Cocozza received the ball well, turned and took a perfect shot on goal to tie the game.

The second half saw plenty of scoring chances for both teams as Westminster put four shots on net and the Lady Barons five, but both goaltenders kept the ball out of the back of the net to keep the game tied. Junior keeper Sarah Luebking made seven saves on the day, and despite the loss, impressed the coaching staff with her play today.

"Sarah had a phenomenal game," complimented coach McBane. "She had one of the best games you could have but take a loss. She was our Player of the Match."

Coach McBane continued, "Westminster challenged Sarah a lot, especially on all of their set pieces. But she had a quality game and was able to make some incredible saves."

Despite the team being fairly young this year, Coach McBane is encouraged by the chemistry on the field the team already has. While the chemistry is already present on the field, she believes that have plenty of room to grow which is okay.

"It was beautiful to see these young players come in a play well," commented Coach McBane. "And I don't think we lost because they were young.  They came in and played with their all and it is very promising to see them play at a high level. We are using today as a challenge to stay hungry and to push ourselves harder every day to become better."

The Lady Barons have a quick turnaround as they return to the pitch tomorrow to face Mount Union at 3pm.