Box score

NEWARK, NJ—NJIT and visiting Mount St. Mary's played through 110 minutes of hard-fought women's soccer and the teams finished in a 1-1 tie Friday night on Lubetkin Field at J. Malcolm Simon Stadium.

The Highlanders (2-3-1) got their goal in the first half, followed by the tying score for Mount St. Mary's (2-4-1) in the second half. There was no scoring, but a lot of well-taken shots met by big saves, over the final 49 minutes.

NJIT, which continues to show dramatic improvement from last year, lost its first all-time match vs. Mount St. Mary's, 5-2, last September in Emmitsburg, MD.

But the Highlanders got on the board first in Friday's rematch, as freshman Gechi Ukaegbu picked up her first college goal in the 34th minute.

Ukaegbu, who was dangerous all night after substituting into the game early, broke free after running onto a nice lead pass out of midfield from her classmate, Amanda Dotten. Ukaegbu received the pass about 30 yards from the goal and drove to the goal, firing the ball past Mountaineer goalkeeper Alicia Miller.

The Mount, which played long high balls out of the back for much of the night, drew even on one such play when Mary McCarron delivered a long pass ahead to Sadie Winship, who scored the tying goal at 61:03.

Winship, who is fast and strong on the ball, finished with six of the Mountaineers' 23 shots overall and three of their 10 shots on goal.

That was all the scoring for either squad, but there was plenty of action, as the teams gave terrific efforts on both ends of the field. In particular, both teams were “all in” during the 20 minutes of overtime, pushing hard for a game-winner that never came despite their best efforts.

NJIT's Dotten took a hard shot that was saved by the visitors' Miller in the closing minutes of the first overtime and Miller came up big again, stopping a shot by Ukaegbu early in the second overtime.

Just moments later, the Highlanders' goalkeeper, Sadie Mele, saved a close one-on-one try by Mountaineer Regina Potter.

Things got even dicier for Mele and NJIT down the stretch, as they were down to 10 players for the final 6:49 after Mary Munoz was ejected for a hard shove on one of the visitors during a dead ball situation in the immediate aftermath of a Highlanders foul.

Mele made nine saves in the game, plus numerous times where she ranged as much as 30 yards out of the goal as the last line of defense to abort the opposition's long-ball attacks.

Her counterpart in the Mountaineer goal, Miller, saved eight NJIT shots, including the two big ones just before and just after the break between the first and second overtimes.

The total shots favored Mount St. Mary's, 23-17, and the shots on goal were 10 for The Mount and nine for the Highlanders. The visitors had a 5-1 advantage in corner kicks, but the NJIT defense did a good job clearing the ball from out in front of the goal.

The Highlanders, who have played their previous four matches at home, will head to Smithfield, RI, outside of Providence, for a 1 pm match at Bryant on Sunday afternoon.