ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul soccer team (8-9-1, 7-7-1 NSIC)  battled hard on Senior Day and put up an impressive effort but they fell just short in a 2-1 loss in overtime to Winona State (12-4-2, 9-4-2 NSIC) on Sunday afternoon.
 
Despite the loss, the Golden Bears clinched their first trip to the NSIC Tournament since 2009 as their 22 points put them in the eighth spot in the standings. Concordia will travel south to take on top-seeded #6 Minnesota State on Wednesday at 1 p.m.
 
Senior Emma Gartner put up an unbelievable performance in net for the Golden Bears as she made 21 saves in the loss. The staggering mark of 21 saves sets the program record, surpassing Kara Gamboni's 19 saves against Minnesota State in 2003. It also smashed her previous career high of 12 as she saved her best for last in her final regular season match in navy and gold.
 
The shot differential was huge for the day as the Warriors finished the day with a shocking 41 shots, 23 on goal, compared to four, three on goal, for CSP.
 
Concordia spent the final 85 minutes of the game playing with only 10 players, but they held their own against Winona State as the score remained even at 0-0 until the 80^th minute. Abby Bohanski appeared to give WSU the decisive lead before Chelsie Lindsay tied it up with her fifth goal of the season in the 88^th minute in dramatic fashion. Bohanski later ended it in overtime in the 98^th minute as she netted her second goal of the game and 10^th of the year.
 
The Golden Bears and Warriors played evenly for the opening 12 minutes before things turned in the favor of WSU. A forward for Winona State snuck behind the CSP defense and forced the Concordia defense to take her down, resulting in a red card.
 
It was all Winona State from there as the Warriors spent much of the rest of the half on the attack. Despite playing a player down, Concordia's defense played tremendously and kept WSU off the board. At the heart of that effort was Gartner as she consistently made save after save. In the opening half alone, the senior keeper saw 14 shots fired her way, including seven on net, and she stopped them all from finding the net. After several chances in tight were turned aside, the Warriors began to become frustrated and started firing from further away from goal. CSP stopped every opportunity and went into the half tied 0-0.
 
The defense continued to weather the storm in the second half as they kept the Warriors at bay and foiled all of their chances. Gartner was even better after the half as the shots came fast and furious as she stood up to the task. She stopped the first 12 shots on net in the half, and 19 overall, before Winona State finally broke the tie.
 
Abby Bohanski took the ball just outside the box and fired a hard, low shot on net with 10:14 to play right as Nicole Sames ran in front of Gartner and screened her, resulting in the ball finding the back of the net.
 
It appeared as though that would be the difference until the Golden Bears made a push with just under three minutes to play. Chelsie Lindsay took a feed from Jordan Rowan-Stafford and Brooke Salo and sized up the goal from about 20 yards out. She fired a rocket off her right foot that found the bottom left corner of the net past the outstretched hand of Rachel Oleson as she sent the Concordia bench into a frenzy as she tied it up at one. Concordia rode the wave of momentum over the last few minutes but couldn't capitalize as the game went into overtime.
 
The Warriors went right back on the attack in overtime and finally put the game away nearly eight minutes into the first overtime period as Bohanski received a pass from Nicole Sames and rolled it past Gartner into the right side of the net past Gartner to end it.