KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Toledo women's soccer team battled Western Michigan to a 1-1 (OT) draw at the WMU Soccer Complex on Sunday afternoon.

"I am proud of our team's performance today," Head Coach TJ Buchholz said. "Western Michigan is a strong team, and we were able to keep them from having a lot of chances on our goal. Even though we went down a goal, our players still kept fighting to get the goal back."
 
The Broncos took a 1-0 advantage in the 57^th minute on a goal from Suzuna Shibukawa. The Broncos' sophomore fired a low shot that bounced off a defender into the Rocket net. The score was set up when WMU played a corner kick short. Freshman Katie Schumacher crossed the ball to the far left side of the post to Shibukawa for the goal.
 
Toledo responded in the 76th minute with a goal from freshman Ellie Pool. Junior Ashton Cassel played the ball into the left side of the box, and Pool lifted a high shot that went through the outstretched hands of Bronco goalkeeper Maggie Rogers for her first career goal.

"Ashton played a great ball into Ellie," Buchholz said. "Ellie then made a great move to get behind the defender on the wing and put the ball on goal. Their keeper got her hand on it, but she got it past her."

Both squads nearly scored again in the final three minutes of play. Toledo freshman Emily Mann fired a shot off the left post with 2:04 to play. WMU's Bailey Korhorn took a shot with 1:20 remaining from inside the Toledo 18-yard box but the ball also hit the left post and bounced back out into play.
 
Redshirt freshman Emma Boutorwick registered five saves in goal for the Rockets. WMU held a slight 6-5 advantage in shots on goal.

"Emma had a great game for us," Buchholz said. "She came up big late in the second half when she made a great save to prevent WMU from scoring."

Toledo returns to action on Sunday, March 28 with a trip to DeKalb, Ill. to face Northern Illinois at 4:00 p.m. CT.