For 109 minutes, the Michigan women's soccer team desperately held off Penn State’s onslaught. But with only 17 seconds left in double overtime, the Nittany Lions finally broke through.

Michigan was unable to close out its regular season with a win in State College on Sunday, falling to Penn State 1-0 in sudden-death, double overtime. With the win, the Nittany Lions earned a share of the Big Ten title.

Sophomore goalie Hayley Kopmeyer had a heroic effort in the loss. Her 14 saves were a career high and the third most in Wolverine history.

“I just have to stay focused the whole game,” Kopmeyer said. “If you have a one-minute collapse, then the ball is in the back of the net. The whole game, I had to make sure I wasn’t out of position and doing whatever I could to make sure we keep ourselves in the game.”

The home team manhandled the Wolverines, controlling the ball nearly the entire game. The Nittany Lions had an astounding 42 shots while giving up only six.

Though the amount of shots may have been higher than anticipated, giving up a wide array of shots was part of Michigan’s strategy.

“We took a defensive approach in this match,” Michigan coach Greg Ryan said Sunday. “We felt like if we got stretched out, we’d probably have problems in giving up goals and I’m not sure if we could score as many goals as they were capable of putting in. We limited them to shots outside of the box and under pressure, which was the plan.”

Kopmeyer kept the Wolverines in the game for the 90 minutes of regulation. After a limited number of chances through the first two halves, Michigan finally applied serious pressure in the final minutes, but was unable to score.

“Hayley played great,” Ryan said. “I thought more than anything, she managed the game well. She slogged the game down and it’s dirty work, but if you want to keep a game tight, it’s work you’ve got to do. I really thought she was a great leader out there in addition to being a great shot stopper.”

After a scoreless first 10-minute overtime, the match went into a second and final overtime, and Penn State (8-2 Big Ten, 10-8-1 overall) cashed in on apparent confusion from the Wolverine defenders. At the 109:43 mark – just 17 seconds away from the end of the game and a draw – Penn State’s Ali Schaefer finally scored, sending a ball bouncing over a diving Kopmeyer.

“My main message to the team was ‘You played your heart out for 109 minutes and 43 seconds,’" Ryan said. “It’s a disappointing loss, but I still think we’ve done enough to get into the NCAA Tournament. We were playing against a great team in Penn State, and I think our girls’ heads are up.”

Michigan (5-3-2, 10-4-4) will now anxiously await Monday’s ESPNU selection show to find out if its season will be extended by postseason play.

Heading into the game, TopDrawerSoccer.com had the Wolverines as the 48th team into the 64-team NCAA Tournament. With the loss, Michigan loses its assumed lock on a bid and now sits atop the bubble. If they were to qualify, the Wolverines’ tournament campaign will begin on Friday at a location still to be determined.

“We felt like keeping the game close gave us the best chance to get into the tournament, so our goal was to win – though we knew it would be difficult – or tie if we could,” Ryan said. “So when the NCAA Tournament looks at the results, they’re going to see that we only have 4 losses, and they’re all to teams that’ll probably be in the tournament. The thing for us today was just giving us the best chance possible to get in the NCAAs, and we were 17 seconds away from getting that done.”