Trina Kochanski (Royal Oak, MI/Kimball) scored two game-tying goals Sunday at Valparaiso University, but the University of Detroit(w) Mercy women’s soccer squad was unable to pull out a victory, falling 3-2 in overtime to the Crusaders.

Valpo (5-8-1 overall, 2-3 Horizon League) grabbed the lead at the 12:56 mark when senior Jackie Kondratko came down the right side, took a pass from junior Sarah Melhorn, and deposited into the left-hand side from 15 yards out for her third goal of the season.

Kochanski punched in her first equalizer off a corner kick. Sophomore Alexandra Suschak (Brecksville, OH/Brecksville) arced the corner kick near the far post, and after pinballing off several pairs of feet, sophomore Alyssa Korson (Suttons Bay, MI/Lake Leelanau St. Mary’s) chipped the ball to Kochanski who nudged the ball over the line and into an open net.

Her second goal came at the 81:48 mark when, with the ball settled at the top of the box, Kochanski booted the ball up just out of reach of the keeper Mele Cabral. The goals were the first two of the season for Kochanski who also one assist. She is now tied for second on the team in goals and became the second Titan this season to score two goals in one game after sophomore Rebecca Pidgeon (Ann Arbor, MI/Huron) did the same against Youngstown State in a 3-1 victory last Sunday.

“I’m just happy that we have been scoring more goals as a team,” Kochanski said. “Today I was just looking to shoot more when I had the ball near the goal instead of looking to pass it all the time.”

The opening half was evenly matched, with the Crusaders holding a slim 9-8 advantage in shots and 5-3 advantage in shots on goal, and each team took just one corner kick. But Valpo was dominant in the second half, outshooting the Titans 14-2 and taking four corner kicks compared to none for Detroit. Kochanski’s goal was the only shot on goal the Titans recorded after intermission.

“We did some good things and made some opportunities for ourselves in the first half and I was encouraged going into the second half until they scored their second goal,” head coach Mike Lupenec said. “But I think we played very well today, and you’ve got to give Valparaiso credit because they took advantage of more opportunities than we did.”

The Crusaders scored their own goal off a corner kick in the second. After the Titans failed to clear the ball from the box, Valpo senior Jessie White had her initial shot blocked, but corralled the rebound and smoked a second shot through three Detroit defenders and just out of the reach of a diving Joanna Hinde (Shelby Twp., MI/Eisenhower) at the 55:35 mark.

The home team continued to pressure the Titans defense after scoring the go-ahead goal. Fighting to keep the game within reach, Hinde left the box in an attempt to thwart a Valpo breakaway with under 23 minutes remaining, but caught a piece of the defender and was given a red card, bringing sophomore keeper Madeline Franko (Dearborn, MI/Dearborn) into the game and forcing UDM to play with only 10 players for the remainder of the game.

Despite being down one player the Titans still managed to knot the score at 2-2, but the Crusaders made it a short overtime period. Just 2:30 into overtime Valpo’s leading scoring, Luisa Desario, connected for her fourth goal of the year, directing the ball over the head of an airborn Franko from 30 yards out to end the match.

“I think we played great today and should have won the game,” said Kochanski. “We just need to understand now that we’ve got to come out to win, and we need to play with a sense of urgency because we need to make the conference tournament.”

Detroit falls to 3-10-1 on the season and 1-3 in the Horizon League.

“It was just one of those games where we had some bounces that didn’t go our way, but we lost our starting goalie and were down a player and still managed to score a goal on them,” said Lupenec. “I think that shows the character of our team, that they fight and that they work hard, and the bad results we’ve had this year certainly haven’t been because of lack of effort.”

The Titans will be returning to action on Friday, hosting league leader Milwaukee at 3 p.m. The Panthers are 7-5-3 overall and remain unblemished (5-0-0) in conference after pummeling Youngstown State 6-1 Sunday afternoon.. Then, on Sunday, Green Bay will visit Detroit for a noon matchup. The Phoenix bettered Cleveland State 5-1 Sunday to improve their record to 4-8-2 overall, and 2-2-1 in league play. You can keep up with all the action next weekend via Gametracker.