ST. LOUIS — The Bellarmine University women's soccer team matched a Maryville goal in the second half with one of its own as the visiting Knights tied the Saints 1-1 Sunday in Great Lakes Valley Conference play.

Senior midfielder Audrey Van Der Elst scored in the 65th minute for Bellarmine (3-2-1, 1-0-1 GLVC) while sophomore goalkeeper Elyssa Francis piled up 10 saves. Sophomore midfielder Samantha Ferry added an assist for the Knights against Maryville (1-1-3, 0-1-1) on a sweltering day where official stoppages for water breaks were instituted.

"That was a hard-fought, Sunday afternoon GLVC battle in what felt more like July heat," Bellarmine Coach Chris Tinius said. "I thought both teams had their moments to possibly get a win, but to fight back from a deficit and get a result on the road against a team like that is a positive."

Francis' 10 saves were the most by a Bellarmine goalkeeper since 2009 when Amy Kunowski amassed 10 against Grand Valley State in an NCAA Midwest Regional game. Francis tallied four saves in the first half, five in the second and one in the first overtime. She made a few diving saves to thwart would-be Maryville goals.

"Elyssa was phenomenal today," Tinius said. "The goal we gave up was unfortunate, but she made a couple big-time saves to keep us in it and give us a chance to get a result."

After a scoreless first half, Maryville broke the deadlock in the 52nd minute following a controversial foul call. A Saints player kicked the ball forward from midfield. A Bellarmine defender went to cut it off and was knocked down to the ground from behind. Curiously, the Knights player was whistled for the foul. Maryville followed with a free kick, and Stacie Muehling scored off the set piece with the assist going to Allison Verville.

The goal seemed to jolt the Knights into action. They knotted the match at 1 in the 65th minute when Van Der Elst received a pass from Ferry near the right corner of the box and ripped in a shot for her second goal of the season.

Neither team scored again in regulation and then two overtimes. The Saints finished with a 13-6 advantage in shots, including 11-3 on goal.

"We talked Friday about being ready for a different type of battle today, and unfortunately you could really see a change in our mindset once we went down," Tinius said. "We lacked that focus in the first half, and Maryville showed a lot of quality on top of that. That makes for a bad combination, and I felt like we were lucky not to be down at halftime. 

"We came out better after the break and then really kicked into gear once we went down. We also had a lot of the ball to start the first overtime. We scored a good goal, but overall while we had moments when we flew toward the goal we didn't actually create the quality of opportunities we needed."

Bellarmine's schedule doesn't let up. The Knights play at reigning GLVC Tournament champion McKendree on Friday before playing at Southern Indiana two days later.

"We are kind of limping away from this one too," Tinius said. "Our sports medicine staff will earn their money this week, and we'll try to regroup for another very difficult road weekend."

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