September 3, 2016 - After a long hard fought match to begin the 2016 season, the Concordia University Chicago Cougars women's soccer team took to the road for the first time in the new season. It would be a neutral sight matchup against the Simpson College Storm which was played at the Sports Core complex in Rockford, Illinois. The Cougars were able to get two goals, but it was not enough to take down a gritty Storm team. The two teams battled into overtime, with no team being able to put the deciding goal away, resulting in a 2-2 draw.
 
CUC had their first good look on net in the 17^th minute, when Alisha Johnson (Coal City, IL/H.S.) had a free run on net, but the Storm goaltender Riley Adams came out and made an outstretched save to keep it 0-0. The Cougars controlled the ball for the majority of the remainder of the half, but would be unable to get another quality scoring chance before the half. The Cougars outshot the Storm 6-1 in the first half.

The Cougars and Storm continued to try and gain the edge in the second half. CUC controlled the pace but was unable to generate any chances until the 66^th minute. Working on the right side of the Simpson net inside the box, Katie Biga (Dayton, OH/Centerville) was able to get a clean shot off. It deflected off the Storm goaltender and right to the foot of Sarah LaCost (Mount Prospect, IL/Prospect), who easily put the finishing touch on the first goal of the season for CUC, and in turn making it a 1-0 game.

The goal sprung momentum for the Cougars who continued to push forward to try to double the score over the next few minutes, but they came up empty. Simpson countered and got their first goal of the season in the 75^th minute when CUC was called for a foul in the box for the second straight game. Maddie Thomas stepped up to the ball and put it inside the left post to knot the game at one.

This set off a high powered set of couple minutes for the Cougars and Storm. CUC took the lead back in the 76^th minute, just 64 seconds after the Storm scored. It would be LaCost again with the goal, heading the ball in off a perfectly placed corner kick by Johnson to make it 2-1 CUC. The Storm raged back though scoring the tying goal 80 seconds after the Cougars goal. It was a perfectly struck ball by Daria Mather from 20 yards out that just beat Maddie Kroll (Geneva, IL/H.S.) for the game-tying goal.

For the second straight match for both teams, it would go into overtime. CUC failed to threaten during the overtime period, not getting a shot off. Simpson did have a couple of good looks, but Kroll rose up to the challenge and earned the draw in her first start of the season making five total saves in the match.

"Of course you want the postitive result," remarked CUC head coach Chris Brown following the match. "Sarah stepped up big for us, and her hard work in training after being sidelined a lot of last year paid off today. We learned a lot about our team thoughout these last two matches. We will rest up tomorrow and get back to training Monday and get ready for North Central on Wednesday."

The Cougars (0-1-1) will have a few days to rest their legs after back-to-back double overtime matches before they return to action on Wednesday afternoon when they take on North Central College from Concordia Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. for the non-conference tilt.