DU women’s soccer faced Oral Roberts University on Oct. 3 at CIBER Field. The first conference game of the 2014 season, this game opened Summit League competition for both teams. 

Oral Roberts, a private school from Oklahoma, is returning to the Summit League conference. They were a member until 2012, and have just rejoined. 

Two minutes into the first half, Oral Roberts’ Megan Giles had a shot on goal, but DU keeper Tina Vargas dove to make an impressive stop – the most crucial save Vargas would make in the first 45 minutes of the game. 

Vargas, a junior from Washington, made her second starting debut with the Pioneers.

DU went into the locker room at half-time with a seven to four shot ratio over Oral Roberts.

 Fortunately, the second half of the game was much more explosive for the DenverPioneers. 

Denver had 16 shots on goal compared to Oral Robert’s zero. Pioneer sophomore Brooke Boothe led the team with six attempts, three of which were on goal. 

The match remained scoreless through regulation time, but overtime play only lasted five minutes.

Pio senior center back Sam Harder received a pass from sophomore Francesca Garzelloni. Harder slammed a kick into the back corner of the goal from the top of the box, giving Harder her second goal of the season and sixth of her career. 

With Harder’s goal, Denver was on the scoreboard and walked away with their first conference win, 1-0. 

DU women’s soccer then hosted the University of Nebraska-Omaha on Oct. 5. 

Before this matchup, the Pioneers had won five straight games at home. 

Unfortunately, Omaha came out on top after another intense overtime battle. 

The first goal of the game came from an Omaha junior defender who scored on a free kick from 25 yards out. The ball bounced off of Vargas’ hands and into the back of the net. 

DU’s first goal was scored in minute 22 by freshman Angelica Pacheco. This was Pacheco’s first goal as a Pioneer.

Omaha took the lead in the second half to bring the score to 1-2. 

With only five minutes left in regulation game time, Denver was able to equalize the score to 2-2. Boothe scored on an assist from Harder. The game went into overtime, again for Denver. 

Eighteen minutes into overtime play, Omaha scored to give the Omaha Mavericks a win, 3-2.

Despite the outcome, the Pioneers put up a very tough fight and came back to send the game into overtime for the second time in the last two games.

Denver will travel to battle Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis on Oct. 10.