The University of Wisconsin-Platteville women’s soccer team came up short in overtime against Luther College 2-1 Oct. 17 after a hard-fought battle on a cold rainy night.

Luther’s Lydia Eager scored the game-wining goal during overtime with 2:03 left on the clock in the first overtime.

Pioneer junior Melissa Dunlavy scored the team’s only goal with 7:02 left in the first half, giving them a 1-0 advantage.

Luther’s Kate Manning then managed to score with 43:36 left in the second half, tying the game up at 1-1, and it was a strong defensive battle from there to the end.

UW-Platteville kept possession of the ball for the majority of the game and gave Luther tough competition right up to the last second.

The heavy rain and low temperatures played a factor in the team’s close loss.

“Our touches could have been a lot better but the rain definitely played a factor in that,” Pioneer senior Anna Strasser said.

Members of both teams seemed to struggle with the wet field as the game went on and the rain poured down harder and harder. “It’s always tough when the ball is slick,” said sophomore Meghan Macy.

The longer the game went on, the more the women were slipping up and down the field and it was obvious that both teams were getting frustrated.

However, Pioneer team members did make their best efforts to overcome the weather conditions and recognized improvement from previous games. “We did a lot better keeping the ball at our opponent’s end today,” Macy said.

“We connected a lot of passes and did a great job of catching the other team off guard,” Dunlavy said.

The Pioneers did rebound from the loss with a 1-0 win at University of Wisconsin-Stout, but then were defeated 4-1 by University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh on Monday.

Tuesday’s game against Viterbo was cancelled so the team did not have to play games on consecutive days.

The Pioneers conclude their season Saturday against non-conference opponent University of Wisconsin-Superior.