GRANVILLE, Ohio (April 22, 2023) – Playing in one of its most anticipated matchups of the season, the Denison University women's lacrosse team put together one of its most impressive performances of the season before coming up just short, 13-12, in overtime against No. 21 nationally-ranked and undefeated Kenyon College on Saturday afternoon inside Piper Stadium.

For the second year in a row, it was Kenyon (14-0 overall, 4-0 North Coast Athletic Conference) that handed Denison (6-9, 4-1) a loss during the regular season as last year, it was Kenyon that broke Denison's streak of 45 consecutive regular-season conference wins before also ending Denison's streak of seven consecutive conference tournament titles.

During Saturday's matchup, the Owls jumped out to a 5-1 lead, led 6-2 after the first quarter and then found themselves ahead by five goals twice in the second quarter.

Goals by Emma Repke (8:54) and Allaire Kotz (1:36) helped the Big Red make it three-goal margin (8-5) at halftime as Denison outscored Kenyon 3-2 in the second period.

Abby Van Metre won the draw control and then Jane Bailey opened up the third quarter with a goal to make it 8-6 less than a minute into the period.

After a Kenyon goal made it 9-6 just over 30 seconds after the goal by Bailey, Denison proceeded to finish off the final seven minutes of the third quarter on a 4-0 run to take the lead.

With just under seven minutes left in the third quarter, Grayson O'Marra picked up a loose groundball in front of the goal and scored to make it 9-7.

Kotz then scored her third and fourth goals of the game to tie it up at 9-9 with 1:02 left in the third quarter before Mary Daniel won the next draw control and a goal by Ashley Viglione put the Big Red ahead for the first time on the day with 23 seconds on the clock.

After a turnover by Kenyon, Josie Lucchesi then opened up the fourth quarter with a free position goal to make it 11-9 a minute and a half into the final period, and then another goal by Lucchesi made it 12-10 with just under five minutes left to play.

However, back-to-back goals by the Owls less than a minute apart, the second of which came on a man-up opportunity following a costly Denison yellow card, tied it at 12-12 with 3:21 left in regulation.

A pair of saves by both Kenyon's Delaney Gallagher and Denison's Caroline O'Dea kept it tied and gave Denison a chance to take the last shot of regulation with less than a minute remaining. In the final moments, a nice pass found Bridget Sheehy open in front of the goal, but her shot missed high before the Denison defense had to work hard keep Kenyon from getting off a shot of its own in the final 15 seconds to force overtime.

In overtime, Kenyon's Julia Losey won the draw control before the game-winning goal by Blythe Karras snuck past O'Dea one minute and 11 seconds in.

Both teams were perfect on clear attempts and both finished with 14 draw controls and four caused turnovers. All of the other statistics were very similar as well as Kenyon outshot Denison just 38-32 and picked up just two more groundballs (13-11) than the Big Red, who had two more shots on goal (27-25) than the Owls.

Kotz led all players in the game with four goals while Lucchesi (2 goals, 1 assist) and Bailey (1 goal, 2 assists) both added three points.

Daniel led both teams with six draw controls while Van Metre added four and O'Dea finished with 12 saves in goal.

The Big Red will face a quick turnaround tomorrow as they travel to Delaware, Ohio, to match up against Ohio Wesleyan University starting at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 23. The Battling Bishops are currently in third place in the NCAC standings at 3-1 and are 10-4 overall.