NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College women's soccer team fought back from a two-goal deficit in the second half to claim a 2-2 tie against Carleton College in a regionally-ranked matchup on Tuesday afternoon at Rolf Mellby Field.

Carleton (8-1-2, 3-0-1 MIAC) scored in the opening four minutes of the game and again in the first 15 minutes of the second half to take a 2-0 lead into the final half hour, but St. Olaf (7-1-2, 2-1-1 MIAC) got goals three minutes apart from senior Sadie Klassen and junior Marit Klagge to come away with a point. The Knights received votes in this week's United Soccer Coaches national poll and were ranked No. 3 in Region IX, while the Oles were slotted No. 7 in the regional poll.

The tie made St. Olaf the first team to take a point off Carleton in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play this season and marked the first time in over two decades that the Knights held a lead of at least two goals and did not come away with a win.

Carleton took a very-early lead in the fourth minute when Hadley Twichell was slotted in on the left side of the box and finished past senior Kalle Munger, who got a hand to Twichell's shot but could not prevent it from going over the line. The goal came less than a minute after Munger entered the game on an injury substitution.

St. Olaf nearly tied the game in the 17th minute when sophomore Emily Johnson fired a long-range shot that the Carleton goalkeeper got hands to but could not hold and the ball caromed off the crossbar. The Knights took the 1-0 lead into the halftime break despite being outshot by a 6-3 margin.

Twichell doubled her tally and Carleton's lead in the 59th minute by steering the ball through Munger's legs at the far post on a counter attack by the visitors. The two-goal advantage did not last long, however, as Klassen struck just over four minutes later to halve St. Olaf's deficit.

Junior Megan Timmerman started the move for the goal by sliding in sophomore Wren VanDeWalker on the left, and VanDeWalker crossed to the back post for Klassen to nod in and get the Oles on the board. Klassen has scored in six of the eight games she has played in this fall and her eight goals this season are one shy of the most by any student-athlete in the conference.

St. Olaf continued to push for a tying goal and was rewarded a little more than three minutes later on Klagge's third goal of the season. Timmerman again played a key role in the goal by sending a left-wing cross into the box that first year Rachel Anderson sent back across goal from the right for Klagge to turn in from close range.

The Knights came the closest to breaking the 2-2 tie late when Twichell got on the end of a cross from the right but steered her back-post effort just wide to come inches from a hat trick. St. Olaf owned a 16-9 advantage in shots and a 7-3 edge in shots on goal in the game.

The Oles will be back in action at Macalester College on Saturday, Oct. 5 in a 1 p.m. kickoff in St. Paul.