Pittsburgh, Pa. ? Feb. 22, 2009 ? The Robert Morris University Colonials fell to the Cincinnati Bearcats in a heartbreaking, 12-11, overtime loss on Sunday afternoon in a game that was held at Duquesne University due to inclement weather conditions at Joe Walton Stadium. Robert Morris was leading 9-8 until the last couple minutes of regulation when Cincinnati scored to tie things up and force overtime.

Senior Kara Blakely (Gibsonia, Pa. / Pine Richland) led the Colonials with four goals, while senior Emily Tomlinson (Springfield, Va. / West Springfield) added a pair of goals and an assist for three points and led the team with six ground balls and three caused turnovers. Freshman Courtney Sicinski (Downington, Pa. / Downington West) finished the contest with a game high three assists and added one goal for a four-point game. Seniors Jillian Howley (East Northport, N.Y. / Northport) and Ashley Levering (Glenwood, Md. / Glenelg) and junior Alana Beck (Cari Place, N.Y. / Old Dominion) also contributed points in the game.

For the Bearcats, Laura Simanski led the team with a game high six goals and Ali Mattingly finished the game with two goals and one assist for three points.

The Colonials got the first strike of action just two minutes into action when Blakely grabbed a pass from Tomlinson and fired the ball past Bearcat goalie Katherine Russo. Within the next five minutes the Colonials and the Bearcats traded goals to even the score to 2-2.

The Bearcats second goal at 6:46 started a scoring streak for Cincinnati, as they added three more goals to their collection within the next five minutes to take the lead 5-2.

The Colonial squad responded to Cincinnati's scoring surge and was able to take back the lead before the end of the half. Howley scored a goal with 15:31 left on the clock, which was followed by a goal from Levering and a pair of goals from Blakely to end the first half, 6-5, in RMU's favor.  

Unlike the start of the game, Cincinnati started the second half with the first score when Lauren Kelly found the net just 50 seconds into the half to tie things up. Kelly's goal was followed by Simanski's third score of the day, which gave the Bearcats back the lead.

With 13:45 left on the clock, Sicinski handed out a helper to Beck and then proceeded to provide assists for Tomlinson in back-to-back goals, which gave the Colonials the 9-7 lead.

Unfortunately, Cincinnati found the net with 6:30 left in regulation to cut into to the Colonials lead and was able to score a second time before the buzzer to tie things up and force the game to be decided in overtime.

In the first three minutes of overtime, both Robert Morris and Cincinnati scored free-position goals to keep the score knotted, but Cincinnati was able to find the net one more time to take the lead and earn the 11-10 win.

Colonial goalie Erica Webb (Arnold, Md. / Broadneck) finished the game with 10 saves, while Russo tallied 9 in the contest. Cincinnati led the Colonials on draw controls 15-to-10 and was one-for-eight on free position attempts, while RMU was one-of-five

The Colonials return to action at Joe Walton Stadium this Friday to take on St. Bonaventure at 4:00 p.m.