COSTA MESA -- Another piece of the heart for Vanguard women's soccer was ripped away Thursday afternoon as the Penguins of Dominican slotted in an equalizer with 18 seconds left in the game to end the match at a 2-2 draw.  The Lions had gone ahead 2-0 before DUC struck in the 78th to make it 2-1.  VU goes to 5-7-3 overall and 3-4-2 in Pacific West Conference play, while the Penguins go to 8-1-8, 4-1-4.
 
 
What Happened?  The Lions were confident in the first half and seemed prepared to take on the wing backs of Dominican early on.  Kate Burns had the first shot for VU in the fourth minute and she forced a save by Viniegra Salas in the seventh minute.  DUC had a couple of shots in the early going but Josselyne Navarrete made routine scoops to restart the Vanguard attack.
 
Just as the clock passed 30 minutes of game time, the Lions opened the scoring.  A pass from the wing found Rachel Penick near the top of the box, and she juked right and then left to shake her defender before driving in on goal and snapping a shot into the top corner of the net for her sixth goal of the year. 
 
Burns got two shots away over the final 15 minutes, with one forcing Salas to make a punching save to keep it from being a 2-0 score in the first half.  DUC did not have a shot on target the rest of the half, and VU entered the break up 1-0.
 
Penick had another good attempt in the first five minutes of the second frame, as she almost squeaked a shot past Salas in the bottom-right corner of the twine, but Salas made a quick dive to counter.  Still keeping the Penguins bottled up offensively, the Lions made it 2-0 in the 69th minute.  The Blue and Gold sent a ball towards the box for Francesca Lindstrom to chase, but it was just out of her reach.  It bounced in and Salas dove to secure it, but she lost the handle on the rock, allowing Lindstrom to snatch it up and dribble towards an empty net and double the VU lead.
 
But the final 20 minutes saw the lead disappear.  DUC strung some passes on the far side of the field and then worked the ball back through the middle.  Running along the top of the box, the Penguins made two tidy flicks and got a shot that hit the inside of the right post and bounced back into the net to cut the gap to 2-1 with 12 minutes to go.  While Hailey Garvin had a good shot that made Salas come up with a stop in the 81st minute, the Lions did not have a shot the rest of the way. 

While Dominican began to press up the field with a desire to score, time and strong defensive play seemed to favor the Blue and Gold.  DUC even got a yellow card in the 89th minute on a harsh challenge as Vanguard made a clearance that seemed to set them back.  However, misfortune then came to the home side after the foul.  The free kick was belted deep, but Dominican grabbed the rebound, made two passes up the field, fed the ball to a forward in the box, and struck at 89:41 to tie the game.
 
The Lions had a 14-10 edge in shots, a 6-5 lead in shots on goal, and a 7-4 win in corner kicks in the contest.  Burns had a match-high four shots and two on goal, with Penick behind with three shots, two on target.  Lindstrom also had three shots in the match, and her fourth goal of the season made it a career-best season in scoring for the senior.
 
What's Next?  The Lions play Menlo on Saturday, with the match at 10:00 a.m. and the senior day ceremony taking place 20 minutes prior to kickoff.