BILLINGS, Mont. – Lauren Forster's team-leading seventh goal leveled the score midway through the second half Saturday for the eighth-ranked Seattle Pacific women, who settled for a 1-1 tie in their Great Northwest Athletic Conference matchup versus Montana State Billings at Yellowjacket Soccer Field.
 
The Falcons (9-1-1) drew despite compiling a commanding 24-6 shot advantage. Their league record moved to 6-1-1 with the end of a four-game winning skein, but extension to a five-game undefeated streak.
 
"It's a tough one. We expected more of ourselves coming into today, coming off a very good result on Thursday," said SPU coach Arby Busey, referring to a 7-0 win at Central Washington. "We had anticipated a lot of energy and excitement coming into this one and unfortunately didn't get that."
 
Billings (5-5-3) scored on its third shot, the first on target by the hosts. Leila Clark intercepted a pass 40 yards from the goal and fed a short pass forward to Liberty Palmer on the full sprint. Palmer dribbled and shook an SPU defender before slipping a 17-yard attempt past the onrushing goalkeeper that snuck inside the left post at 24:20. That halted a scoreless streak of 299-minutes, 15-seconds by SU opponents.
 
The Falcons found themselves behind for only the third time all season, and just the second time at intermission. SPU trailed 1-0 on the halftime scoreboard despite having twice as many shots on the scoresheet, 10-5.
 
Each team put three chances directly on goal during the first 45 minutes.
 
Forster evened the score, 1-1, at 67:18 with a pleasing piece of ball-handling. She received a pass from Sophia Chilczuk and began a nearly 10-second bout on the ball from 40 yards out. Forster steadily dribbled down the left sideline and split two defenders to gain access to the top of the box before lining a shot goalward. The ball slightly nicked an MSUB defender on its path inside the left post.
 
LAUREN FORSTER GOAL

"She's got the ability with the ball at her feet to slice-and-dice and do some things," Busey said. "Lauren created space for herself and took advantage of it.
 
"She's got the innate ability, when she gets around the goal, to be a finisher not just a shooter. She is somebody who understands where the goalkeeper may not be able to get to the ball, and is very good about putting it in that spot to keep it away from the goalkeeper."
 
The second-half tally gave Forster a two-goal lead among the team's scorers and continued her points streak to five games. She compiled four goals and two assists during that stretch, including a brace on Thursday in Ellensburg.
 
Both scores were deposited into the East goal, with persistent high wind gusting that direction up to 30 miles per hour.
 
FRANTIC END OF REGULAR TIME
The Falcons continued their assault on the Billings goal, firing eight unanswered shots during the final 12 minutes of the second half. Five of those attempts came during the frenetic final three minutes of regulation.
 
Clare Keenan made back-to-back brilliant saves seconds apart to preserve the tie with two minutes remaining in regulation. Keenan came off her line to block a shot from the right side by Makena Rietz and then stopped Forster's point-blank follow-up.
 
 

Chloe Gellhaus blasted a 27-yard shot hard off the crossbar with 1:29 remaining in regulation.
 
"We kind of started to find ourselves way late in that game. Unfortunately, too late," said Busey. "We had some good quality opportunities, created some things in the last 15 minutes in regulation, hoping and thinking that we were going to get something taken care of there. But it didn't happen today."
 
The shot count was 22-6 in SPU's favor after regulation. The visitors got off one shot in each of the two, 10-minute overtime periods against a Yellowjackets defense that was bunkered in its own end.
 
Junior Kaitlynn Knocke started her second straight game in goal for SPU and was credited with three saves.
 
Clare Keenan stopped six shots for Billings, which saw its GNAC record revised to 2-4-2.
 
FIRST-HALF CHANCES
Despite going scoreless in the opening half, the Falcons weren't without their opportunities. Three of their shots were on frame and a few others barely missed.
 
In the fifth minute, a shot by Gellhaus from a sharp angle on the right side rolled across the goalmouth and carried just wide of the left post.
 
Seven minutes later, Claire Neder followed a dribbling run into the left side of the box with a shot that Keenan smothered at the left post.
 
Chilczuk was eight yards away with her back to goal in the 30th minute. She spun and fired, but the ball carried just over the crossbar.
 
NEXT GAME
The Seattle Pacific women remain on the road for two games next week. They visit 23rd-ranked Western Washington on Thursday for a 7:00 p.m. clash at Harrington Field in Bellingham.
 
That is a rematch of the Oct. 9 game in Seattle that the Falcons won 1-0 on a 95th-minute golden goal from Neder off assists from Forster and Gellhaus.
 
Busey expects another tight battle on Thursday.
 
"It will be everything that those rivalry games always are. Both teams will play extremely hard and be well prepared for each other. I don't anticipate anything less than what we got in the last eight to 10 years with those guys. There have been some absolute barn-burners."
 
Next Saturday, Oct. 23, SPU plays a 2:00 p.m. game versus Simon Fraser in Burnaby, B.C.
 
NCAA WOMEN'S SOCCER
Saturday, October 16, 2021
Yellowjacket Soccer Field / Billings, Mont.
 
#8 Seattle Pacific 1, at Montana State Billings 1 (2ot)
 
Scoring – 1, MSUB, Liberty Palmer (Leila Clark), 24:20; 2, SPU, Lauren Forster (unassisted), 67:18.
 
                            1   2  OT  OT  --  TOTAL
Seattle Pacific             0   1   0   0  --    1
Montana State Billings      1   0   0   0  --    1
 
Shots – SPU 24, MSUB 6.
Shots on Goal – SPU 7, MSUB 4.
Saves – SPU 3 (Kaitlynn Knocke), MSUB 6 (Clare Keenan).
Corner Kicks – SPU 10, MSUB 1.
Fouls – SPU 9, MSUB 17.
Offsides – SPU 3, MSUB 1.
 
Records
Seattle Pacific 9-1-1,  6-1-1 GNAC
Montana State Billings 5-2-3,  2-4-2 GNAC
 
Next SPU Women's Soccer Game
(#8) Seattle Pacific at (#23) Western Washington
Thursday, October 21, 7:00 p.m.
Harrington Field / Bellingham, Wash.