Contact: Mark Albanese, Director of Sports Communication

WALLA WALLA, Wash. - The 16th-ranked Pacific Lutheran University women's soccer team seized sole possession of first place in the Northwest Conference standings on Sunday afternoon, battling to a 2-2 double overtime stalemate against host Whitman College.

PLU's tie coupled with Whitworth University's 1-0 overtime upset of the University of Puget Sound breaks the deadlock atop the league table with the Lutes (10-0-4, 7-0-3 NWC) now owning a one-point lead on the crosstown Loggers in the NWC standings just past the halfway point of the conference slate.

Host Whitman (1-11-2, 1-7-2 NWC) drew first blood on Sunday, with Sofia Ellington finding the back of the net in the 10th minute, snapping PLU's shutout streak at 590 minutes, a streak spanning across eight games. The hosts maintained a one goal edge at the halftime intermission before Machaela Graddy tallied the equalizer in the 59th minute, her third score of the road trip. Kaylie Rozell provided the go ahead score in the 71st minute, beating the keeper off a feed from Ashley Mindnich before the pesky Whitman side tallied a goal in the 87th minute from Lena de Guzman to tie the contest at 2-2. 

The Whitman goal proved to be the final score of the day with the two squads unable to break through in the two 10-minute overtime sessions.

"It was a tough result today but credit to Whitman their goalkeeper had an outstanding game. She made probably three or four big saves," said Head Coach Seth Spidahl. 

"We tried hard and I'm proud of the character the team showed down a goal at halftime. It's a tricky game" 

PLU dominated the statline, owning a 30-10 edge in shots, including a 12-4 advantage in shots on target while taking 14 of the contest's 16 corner kicks.

Takara Mitsui made two saves in goal for the Lutes, playing all 110 minutes while her counterpart, Haley Case, stopped nine shots in the complete game effort.

"We let in a few goals that aren't characteristic of us, but to be fair to the backline,you're not going to get shutouts all the time and today was the day we needed to score three goals to win the game. We had 30 shots and 14 corner kicks and I don't know what more you can do to score three goals, we just didn't."

"Overall, we still have all our goals in front of us, UPS lost to Whitworth so this isn't an easy road trip. I liked the character that we showed and our ability to fight and we actually gained ground in the standings, but at the end of the day there's still a lot of soccer to be played."

The game closed the books on a grueling eight game stretch that saw PLU play seven of those contests away from the friendly confines of East Field. The Lutes are back in action on Saturday, opening a five game homestand beginning against Linfield College.