LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A season opener filled with excitement ultimately ended on a bittersweet note for the Bellarmine University women's soccer team.

On Sunday at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium, the Knights and Northern Kentucky both wound up finding the net in impressive fashion, leading to a 3-3 tie.

Junior midfielder Emma Nicholson, senior forward Brielle Heuglin and freshman midfielder Rachel Skyberg collected goals for Bellarmine (0-0-1), which has deadlocked with Northern Kentucky (0-1-1) in all three matchups in the Division-I era. Freshman defender Dakota Bramer and junior forward Ashlyn Fuller notched an assist each for the Knights.

In a sense, it was a heartbreaking outcome for Bellarmine, which took a seemingly comfortable 3-1 lead in the 67th minute. However, not much later, Northern Kentucky managed to put away two goals less than four minutes apart to equalize the contest.

Bellarmine was prone to ties last season, so a stalemate in its 2023 debut wasn't out of the ordinary — but almost everything else was. The Knights struggled to locate the net in 2022, but right from the get-go they tied a D1-era program record with their three goals. On the flipside, BU's defense ranked second in the ASUN in goals-against average (0.88) last season, so conceding three goals was highly unusual as well.

Bellarmine initially trailed in the contest after NKU's Emilie Doersching opened the scoring in the 25th minute, but the Knights evened things up before halftime on Nicholson's first career goal in a Knights uniform. The transfer made some shifty moves down the center of the field before burying a shot inside the left post from 30 yards.

After the intermission, Bellarmine took the lead in the 57th minute. Heuglin stole the ball from a defender and laced a shot from 23 yards inside the near post.

Bellarmine boosted the advantage to 3-1 roughly 10 minutes later. Bramer passed to Fuller near the top of the box, and Fuller tapped ahead to Skyberg, who streaked in and slotted a shot inside the far post for her first collegiate goal.

The two-goal lead would disappear after NKU's Kylie Anderson followed her goal in the 74th minute with another in the 78th. After the tying goal, the Norse attempted four more shots to the one of the Knights, but neither team delivered the winner.

Northern Kentucky held a 20-10 advantage in shots, including 14-7 on frame. Junior Cambria Kingman played the first half in goal for the Knights and collected two saves, while freshman Shelby Smith played the second half and amassed eight saves. Sophomore defender Sidney Rigsby had a spectacular defensive save in the first half when the contest was scoreless.

Bellarmine will host IUPUI at 7 p.m. (ET) Thursday.

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