THOUSAND OAKS, CALIF. – The St. Catherine University soccer team suffered a bit of a setback in its first game of 2017. The Wildcats lost to Cal Lutheran 3-1 in their first game of the season on Friday, and the team was hoping to rebound with a big win against La Verne College Sunday morning. Unfortunately, St. Kate's was unable to leave the sunny state of California with a victory, falling to La Verne in the 106^th minute by a final score of 2-1.

The Wildcats and Leopards were equally matched in the first half of the game, as the two teams drew to a 0-0 draw after the first 45 minutes of play. In fact, the first goal of the game wasn't scored until the 64^th minute of play, when La Verne's Jessica Hernandez managed to sneak the ball past St. Kate's goalkeeper Jessica Perez-Adame (San Jacinto, Calif. / San Jacinto) to give the Leopards a 1-0 lead.

However, the Wildcats weren't down and out for the count. Like on Friday, St. Kate's continued to pepper La Verne goalkeeper Jasmine Valadez with shots, who, unfortunately was there to make every save. Juniors Molly Hayes (South St. Paul, Minn. / South St. Paul) and Nicole Doran (Farmington, Minn. / Farmington) and sophomore Allie Bird (Maple Grove, Minn. / Maple Grove) each had a chance to score the equalizer, but Valadez was there to make the save on each shot.

St. Kate's finally broke through Valadez' and the Leopards tough defense, though. After several minutes of persistency, the Wildcats were finally awarded a corner kick at 84:49. With five minutes left in the game, junior back Iryna Talkachova (Minsk, Belarus / Shattuck-St. Mary's) launched a ball from the corner and found senior center back Shannon Hickey (Eden Prairie, Minn. / Visitation), who headed the goal to the back of the net, scoring her first goal of the season and evening the score at 1-1.

That score would hold until the end of the regulation, when the Wildcats and Leopards played the first overtime period of the year. However, after 10 extra minutes of play weren't enough to break the tie, another overtime period was needed to determine a victor. Six minutes of play passed, and it looked like St. Kate's was going to leave California with its first tie of the season. Sadly, La Verne put a stop to those thoughts, as Hernandez scored the game winner on a breakaway play on the left side.

Perez-Adame was strong in goal in her first start of the year, making six saves in 106 minutes of work. Hickey scored her first goal of the season while Talkachova tallied her first assist.

Despite the 2-1 loss, St. Kate's still looked impressive in its trip to California, and returns to Minnesota with a 0-2-0 record. The Wildcats will return to the pitch on Saturday, when it hosts UW-Whitewater in the first home game of the season. The game is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at St. Kate's soccer field in St. Paul, Minnesota.