For 30 minutes, everything seemed to be swinging in Tiffin's favor in their battle for first place with visiting Grand Valley State.
But that's why they play 60 minutes.
The Lakers came storming back over the final 30 minutes, completely dominating the tempo and doing just enough to capitalize on 23 TU turnovers and win 15-13. The loss drops Tiffin to 6-7 overall, 4-1 in the GLIAC, while the Lakers improve to 7-5, 4-0 GLIAC.
The Lakers jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead, but the Dragons duplicated their comeback effort from the night before against Notre Dame over the next 20 minutes. TU exploded for 8 consecutive goals, taking a 8-3 lead with just 3 minutes left in the half. They held an 8-4 lead at the intermission.
However, an ominous sign was seen in the halftime statistics. The Dragons had already committed 13 turnovers, and only some sensational saves by Jessica Bombard (11 saves in the first half) kept the Lakers at bay.
The turnovers came back to bite the Dragons in a big way over the final 30 minutes. The Lakers seemed to stay constantly on offense, holding a 27-8 shot advantage after halftime. They also dominated the draws over the final 30 minutes, turning an 8-5 draw disadvantage at halftime to a 14-3 second half advantage.
The Lakers scored 7 of the next 8 goals to take a 11-9 lead. The Dragons kept fighting, however, eventually tying the game 11-11 with 14:11 left. The Lakers scored twice to make it 13-11 but Alexandria Quast's breakaway goal made it 13-12 with 8:28 to go. From there the Lakers wore the clock down, patiently scoring twice more, including the backbreaking goal with 1:40 left that put them up 3 goals and sealed the game.
Quast led the Dragons with 7 goals along with 4 caused turnovers and 3 ground balls. Alexis MacMillan had 2 goals and 2 assists while Katelyn Hill also had 2 goals and 8 draws. Emily Roussel had a goal and Kalie Weinheimer added an assist.
Bombard finished with 20 saves over 60 minutes.