WHEATON, Ill. - After 110 minutes of competition, the UW-Eau Claire soccer team settled for a 2-2 tie to two-time defending national champion Wheaton College (Ill.) tonight at Joe Bean Stadium.

Tonight's tie marked the first time in program history the Blugolds have not lost to the Thunder. The all-time series now stands at 0-8-1. Wheaton also had its 30-game home win streak snapped tonight as well. With the win, Eau Claire is now 6-0-2 on the season while Wheaton is 4-1-1.

The sixth-ranked Blugolds got on the board first with Liz Kooistra (Sr.-Lakeville, Minn.) scoring at 39:34. Amy Smith (Sr.-Bloomington, Minn./Thomas Jefferson) was credited with the assist. The Blugolds took their one goal lead into halftime.

In the second half, Eau Claire came out slow and allowed the 11th-ranked Thunder to get back into the game. Taryne Lee was the first to strike in the 49th minute to tie it up. Ali Kopelman found the net less than eight minutes later to give the Thunder their first lead of the contest.

While the Blugolds found themselves down for almost 20 minutes in the second half, Amy Smith was able to score the game-tying goal at 76:09, with an assist going to Allison Muer (Sr.-Minneapolis, Minn./South). Although the game was tied, Wheaton had the advantage the rest of the way as Allison Smith (Sr.-Bloomington, Minn./Thomas Jefferson) was given a red card less than a minute later and the Blugolds were forced to compete with one less player the rest of the night. The Blugolds were able to come out of it with the 2-2 tie though.

Wheaton out-shot the Blugolds 20-14. Coming into the game today, Eau Claire had out-shot opponents in its previous 16 contests. The last time the Blugolds were out-shot was against Wheaton a year ago, at 13 shots to the Blugolds' 12.

Allie Rivard (Sr.-Plymouth, Minn./Wayzata) played on the entire night in goal and picked up five saves, but gave up the two goals.

Up next, the Blugolds will head to UW-Superior for a conference game. The contest is slated to begin at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Eau Claire-Wheaton Box Score

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