PHOTO GALLERY

ADA, Ohio- Another hard-fought showdown between Otterbein and No. 17 Ohio Northern in women's soccer came right down to the very end, as top-seed and regular-season champion ONU ultimately netted a double-overtime goal to escape the Cardinals, 2-1, in Saturday night's OAC Tournament title contest.

The host Polar Bears emerged behind a goal from leading scorer Jenna Fuller in the 102nd minute at a rowdy Kerscher Stadium, earning the league's automatic bid the upcoming NCAA Tournament. Ohio Northern also survived the Cardinals by the same 2-1 result two weeks ago in Westerville.

Otterbein, sitting with a 16-4-1 overall record, will now be forced to wait until Monday's NCAA Selection Show to see if it earns an at-large bid.

The two sides played to a draw at halftime with no one breaking through on the scoreboard. Otterbein saw chances when Bella Shivley hit the cross bar, and a near shot by Emily Ganz was saved by a diving Meagan Grierson. The Polar Bears then nearly scored a header that ricocheted off the crossbar before Erin Gordon was able to dive on the bouncing ball inches from crossing the goal line.

The Polar Bears took the lead in the 75th minute when Megan Brierer sent a high arching cross into the box off a corner kick, Sydney Leshnak was able to get a head on the ball and it send it far post to beat Gordon for the games first score.

Exactly two minutes later Delaney Earl shook her defender and hit a line drive shot over the defense and past Grierson with her left foot from 25-yards out, tying the game at 1-1 with under 14 minutes left.

Otterbein entered overtime with the Polar Bears trailing in shots 17-11. The first OT saw each side take three shots, but none could best the opposing keeper as another OT was needed to decide the winner.

Fuller ended the night roughly 90 seconds into the second overtime when a ball skidded through the box and nearly trickled out of bounds. Rose Nienaber kept it alive, feeding a pass back into Fuller who finished strong.

Gordon, Ganz and fellow junior classmate Sydney Young represented Otterbein on the 2019 All-Tournament Team. Stay tuned to otterbeincardinals.com and our social media outlets for updates heading into next week.