INDIANAPOLIS – All four goals were scored in the second half on Thursday night as the Bulldogs hosted nationally-ranked DePaul at the Butler Bowl. The home team inched towards an outright win, but a late goal from DePaul in the 86th minute would send the two teams into extra time.

"A lot of people will look at a tie with the No. 12 team in the country and think it's a really good result, but honestly we are very disappointed," Co-Head Coach Rob Alman explained. "Not in our performance, but just with the outcome. Our girls were excellent tonight with regards to applying our game plan and were able to force the game to be played the way we wanted it to be played."

The Bulldogs got on the scoreboard first with a goal from McKenzie Muchow just minutes into the second half. The ball was played in from the far side of the field where Muchow was waiting in the middle of the field. The sophomore collected the pass and beat the keeper to the left side. Sophia Maccagnone and Elise Kotsakis were each credited with an assist on the score.

DePaul would even the score at 1-1 in the 67th minute of action off a well-executed play that led to a goal from Alexa Ben. Action once again started on the far side of the field as the ball moved to Ben in the middle of the field. She beat the keeper to the left side off a double assist from Mary Kate Cicinelli and Elise Wyatt.

A yellow card on DePaul helped lift Butler to a 2-1 lead in the 73rd minute of the match. Sarah Gorden was hit with a yellow card after a hard shove in the back. Stephanie Kaylor would take the free kick and send the ball into the middle of the field where Shannon McDevitt got a shot off. The shot was blocked and deflected to Brenna Pawelkowski who once again found McDevitt. The freshman was able to find the back of the net this time around as she recorded the go-ahead goal by beating the keeper to the left side.

The Bulldogs were very aggressive in the second half trying to pull off the upset win over No. 12 DePaul. They were whistled for 10 fouls in the second stanza which led to 15 total. The Blue Demons were able to hold their composure and come up with a clutch goal from Abby Reed late in the action to send the match into overtime. The ball ended up with Ben after striking the post on the entry. Ben found Reed for her 10th goal of the season to push the teams to the 2-2 tie.

"After dominating for long periods of time it was tough to concede after a clear foul in the build up to their first goal and then give up a very sloppy, avoidable goal with 3 minutes to go," Alman added. "We should have closed the game out and should have taken all three points from a very good, athletic and talented DePaul team."

Shots were even on Thursday night with Butler recording 13 compared to 11 for DePaul. Each team took one shot in each overtime period. Cicinelli had a nice shot on goal in the second overtime, but a save from Mackenzie Hopkins kept the game knotted up at 2-2. Hopkins made two saves on the night while the DePaul keeper was active with four.

Maccagnone was a driving force behind the Butler offensive attack as she led all players with six total shots. Kotsakis took two on the night while McDevitt and Muchow each tallied two.

"We'll learn from the game, continue to focus on getting a little better every day, and get ourselves ready for a good challenge on the road at Xavier," Alman said postgame.

Butler will return to action with a road match at Xavier this Sunday, Oct. 19. The final home match of the year will follow on Saturday Oct. 25. The match against Creighton will serve as senior day for Stephanie Kaylor, Elise Kotsakis, Caroline Kowal, Laura Luther and Kelly Mahoney.