NEW HAVEN, CONN. (September 25, 2016)—The Sacred Heart field hockey team suffered a heartbreaking loss to Temple in overtime Sunday afternoon at Johnson Field.

Late in the second half, with the Owls up 2-1, Christina Gotthold (Middletown, Del.) found the back of the goal to even the score with less than four minutes remaining in regulation. There it stood at the buzzer sending the game into overtime. The teams were evenly matched during the extra minutes, but with 47 seconds on the clock, Temple's Rachel Mueller handled the ball in the middle of the circle, using a spin move to net the game-winner.

SHU returns to Johnson Field next Sunday, October 2 to host UMass-Lowell at noon.

First Half:

• Back-and-forth action in the first half saw the stats near even at halftime. Sacred Heart outshot the Owls 4-2. All six shots taken in the first half were on goal, with Temple goalkeeper Maddie Lillilock making three saves and SHU's Emily Degennaro (Wading River, N.Y.) making two
• Sacred Heart held a 1-0 lead at the end of the first half thanks to Rebecca Hauser's (Mohrsville, Pa.) third goal of the season. In just the eighth minute of the game, Allie Brouhard (Washington, N.J.) took a penalty corner for the Pioneers and found the sophomore on the left wing. With one hard swing, Hauser put the ball in the upper right corner of the goal putting SHU on the board
• Both teams had plenty of chances at the goal as they combined for nine penalty corners in the period, SHU getting just one more, 5-4

Second Half:

• Temple's offense dominated the first 10 minutes of the second half, but the Pioneers worked hard on the defensive end to continue to hold the Owls scoreless until the 50^th minute when Katie Foran evened the score at one
• Just six minutes later, Mueller gave the Owls their first lead of the game scoring off a penalty corner
• With time winding down, and two Owls sidelined with green cards, Bridget Kelly (South Windsor, Conn.) found Gotthold right in front of the goal. The junior swung high putting the ball in the back of the net, evening the score that would hold until the final buzzer
• The Owls' strong offense outshot the Pioneers 7-3 in the period and earned four more penalty corners than SHU

Overtime:

• The teams once again seemed evenly matched in the seven-on-seven overtime. Temple took three shots, compared to SHU's two, but the Pioneers were granted the only penalty corner of the period after Nichole Tolli (Poughquag, N.Y.) drove the ball all the way up the field and into the circle, but was halted by a defender
• With just 47 seconds on the clock, a bad pass sailed into Temple's circle where Meuller was perfectly positioned to field it. The junior spun around distracting Degennaro before taking the hard shot for the game-winner