The UW-Eau Claire women’s soccer team walked off of their home turf this past Sunday with a tie against the Dubuque University Spartans (Iowa) after double overtime, holding the score at 1-1.

The Blugolds took the lead from the start with a powerful shot to the back of the net from Emily Sullivan, a junior midfielder, in the initial ten minutes of the game.

Head Coach Sean Yengo said he was proud of how the team began the match.

“We had a great start,” Yengo said. “Our opener — we gave up two goals in the first half. Our highlight as a team was getting off to a good start.”

Senior defense Caitlin Kristoff said the team struggled with injuries throughout the game, but didn’t let difficult circumstances bring down their moral.

Eau Claire fought a strong offense, taking shot after shot. The team recorded a total of eleven shots on goal in the duration of the 90-minute game.

However, the Spartans did not go down without a fight.

At the end of the first half, Dubuque broke away and made their shot, flying through the air to match up the score 1-1.

“The second half was much different than the first half,” Yengo said. “Playing back-to-back games this weekend, we experienced fatigue and we had players knocked out due to injuries. But we battled and had an opportunity to win the game.”

With neither team scoring another goal in the second half, the game entered its first overtime. The first round of overtime was played by the rules of golden goal, meaning the first team to score would end the game.

Nevertheless, neither team scored in the first or second overtime, ending the game in a tie.

Despite not yet achieving a win, Coach Yengo said there is a lot to look forward to this season.

“Training has been going great,” Yengo said. “We have a very cohesive group of players and we’ve been so close in all of the games we’ve played. The togetherness and the chemistry of the team is strong.”

The Blugolds will play again Sept. 14 at home against Wartburg College (Iowa) for youth day.