LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Bellarmine University women's soccer team opened the regular season Thursday by deadlocking 1-1 with Evansville at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium.

Freshman defender Katie Gawrys scored her first career goal in her collegiate debut while senior midfielder Regan Kommor tallied an assist in her Bellarmine debut for the Knights (0-0-1), who took on Evansville (0-0-1) after challenging exhibitions against Butler and Western Kentucky, teams that went a combined 18-4-2 last season.

"It's good to get out in the first game and get some type of result on our homefield," Knights Coach Chris Tinius said. "We were pretty beat up coming out of preseason and the exhibitions, and then lost a few kids this afternoon to tracing. On one hand, it would have been easy to cash it in tonight. On the other hand, we played so well the first 55 minutes it feels like a bit of a letdown at the same time."

Neither team scored in the first half as the defenses hardly budged, with Bellarmine holding a 4-1 advantage in shots. However, the Knights delivered their first score of the season less than 10 minutes into the second stanza.

In the 54th minute, senior midfielder and transfer Sarah Buse made a long run down the left side and crossed to Kommor, her former UAB teammate. It took a terrific kick save from Evansville goalkeeper Lauren Fischer to prevent Kommor from scoring, but Gawrys pounced on the ricochet, ramming in a rebound goal to provide the Knights a 1-0 lead.

Evansville played assertively after falling behind and tied it up in the 67th minute. Hailey Autenrieb had a shot blocked, but she followed the attempt by lofting a pass to Emily Ormson, who drove in the equalizer with a header.

Bellarmine had to do some heavy lifting in regulation and the two overtimes to produce a tie. Senior goalkeeper Elyssa Francis finished with seven saves, including a spectacular diving stop with less than 12 minutes left in regulation and another in overtime to keep Evansville from breaking the stalemate.

Evansville finished with a 13-12 advantage in shots, but the difference was 12-8 in the second half and extra frames.

"It was kind of a tale of two games," Tinius said. "We were much more purposeful to start the game and really controlled the ball. I loved our goal with three newcomers on the tail end of it, and Katie staying engaged to put in the rebound. Unfortunately, I think the goal was more of a relief than a rallying cry. Evansville did a great job once they got momentum and were all over us the second part of the game. They found some good runs in behind us, and Elyssa made some big saves to keep them from getting a second one."

Bellarmine will remain home and welcome Chicago State at 1 p.m. (ET) Sunday to Frazier Stadium.

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