Moon Township, Pa. – April 11, 2009 – After battling with the Quinnipiac Bobcats through two periods of over time, the Robert Morris University Colonials fell to the Bobcats, 12-11, on Saturday afternoon at Joe Walton Stadium. Quinnipiac's Nicole Fiore scored with two seconds left in the second overtime to secure the win.

The Colonials led throughout the entire first-half and part of the second, but a second-half surge of free-position goals by Quinnipiac left things knotted 11-11 at the end of regulation. With the win, the Bobcats improve their record to 5-1 in league play and 9-2 overall, while RMU drops to 3-3 in the NEC and 7-7 overall.

Senior Jennifer Collins (Edgewater, Md./South River) led the Colonials with a hat trick and one assist for four points, while senior Kara Blakeley (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland) added two goals and one assist and senior Ashley Levering (Glenwood, Md./Glenelg) captured one goal and two assists. Jillian Howley (East Northport, N.Y./Northport) and Courtney Sicinski (Downingtown, Pa./Downingtown West) each grabbed a pairing of one goal and one assist in the defeat. Howley also led the team in ground balls with four, while also adding three caused turnovers.

Robert Morris stunned the Bobcats at the start of regulation, as they immediately tallied two goals in the first five minutes of action and then added two more scores less than seven minutes later to take the early four goal lead. Collins scored the Colonials fourth goal at 11:14 and the Bobcats were finally able to get on the board 12 seconds later when Devon Gibney took a pass from Ashley Valentine and scored.

Sicinski gave RMU back its four goal cushion when she fired the ball past Quinnipiac goalie Hannah Nelson with 14:49 left on the clock. However, at 12:04 Valentine grabbed Quinnipiac's second goal, which started a string of three goals to bring the Bobcats within one at 5-4.

The Colonials ended the half just as strong as they started it with goals by freshman Colleen O'Donnell (Portland, Oregon/St. Mary's Academy) and Levering. O'Donnell took the ball solo from one end of the field to the other to make an unassisted play with 3:20 left on the clock and then Levering soared the ball past Nelson with just 42 seconds left to send the two squads into the second half with RMU up 7-4.

Quinnipiac started off the second half with back-to-back free-position goals by Devon Gibney, which marked her third and fourth goal of the game, to bring the score within one. Blakeley responded with an RMU free-position goal a little over a minute later to bring the score to 8-6, but Quinnipiac notched four answered goals in the next ten minutes of play to grab its first lead of the contest, 10-8.

Collins stepped up to the plate for RMU and recorded two unassisted goals at 20:50 and 22:26, which was followed by a goal by junior Alana Beck 20 seconds later to take back the lead 11-10. With 4:10 left on the clock, Gibney tallied her fourth free-position goal of the game, which made her perfect on the day going 4-for-4. The goal tied the game 11-11 to force overtime.

Neither team was able to score throughout the first overtime, forcing the game into sudden death. With two seconds left on the clock in the second overtime Fiore slipped the ball into RMU's net to grab the 12-11 victory.

Junior goalie Erica Webb (Arnold, Md./Broadneck) finished the game with 15 saves, while Nelson grabbed 12 saves. The Bobcats recorded 16 draw wins to RMU's 10 and were successful on 6-of-15 free-position attempts, while RMU was 1-of-5.

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2009-04-11