For Tiffin University, it was the Hill that kept them out of the valley of despair.
TU's Katelyn Hill nailed a shot with just 18 seconds remaining to keep the Dragons unbeaten in GLIAC play, pulling out a narrow 16-15 win over visiting Notre Dame College in a physical nailbiter that literally came down to the closing seconds. The Dragons improved to 6-6, 4-0 in the conference while Notre Dame fell to 6-3, 2-2 GLIAC.
The win sets up a battle of unbeaten conference foes as Grand Valley State comes to Tiffin Saturday night at 7 pm.
The game started poorly for the Dragons as the Falcons jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead after 6 minutes. But Tiffin showed its mettle for the first of many times Friday night, storming back after a timeout by Coach Erica Brown to outscore the Falcons 8-1 over the next 16 minutes to lead 8-5 at the 8:00 mark of the first half.
Notre Dame, however, also showed it came to play, picking up a couple goals before the end of the half to trail 8-7 at intermission.
The second half stayed close throughout though the Dragons never relinquished the lead. Notre Dame battled back from deficits repeatedly to tie the game three times in the second half but the Dragons never lost their composure, answering each tie score with another goal to keep the pressure on the Falcons.
Jessica Bombard also had a sensational game in goal, making 13 saves including 7 outstanding saves in the second half that kept TU from falling behind.
After Notre Dame's Kristen Hull scored a free position goal with 5:54 to play to tie the score at 15-15, the two teams exchanged shots but could not get their teams the lead. With 30 seconds left, TU's Hill got the ball and took off down the middle of the field, spinning around in front of the Notre Dame goal and firing the gamewinner with 18 ticks left on the clock.
Alexandria Quast, facing double and triple teams all night long, responded with a strong all around game, scoring 3 times but also dishing out 4 assists. The rest of the Dragons team responded to Quast's coverage by stepping up and spreading the offense around, with Emily Roussel getting 5 goals and 2 assists, Alexis MacMillan tallying 3 goals and 3 assists, and Hill finishing with 3 goals and an assist along with 10 draw controls. Kalie Weinheimer also had 2 goals.
The overall stats were as close as the final score. Notre Dame led in shots 31-29. Ground balls were even 15-15 while the Falcons won the draws 17-16. TU had more turnovers 19-18. Bombard's strong outing also helped hold the Falcons to just 5 for 12 on free position shots.
