The win gave the Spartans control of their own destiny in their quest to capture a fourth consecutive Northern Athletics Conference championship.
The Spartans struck the first blow in the 9thminute of play, when sophomore midfielder Jordan Joyce tallied her second goal of the season off a corner attempt from freshman defender Britney Schenck.
Joyce’s goal got past Sabre junior goalkeeper Tiffany Erdman, who would play the first half before being replaced by freshman Jordan Dykstra.
The Sabres managed to answer back in the 21st minute with an unassisted goal by senior forward
Danielle Grable. The game tying goal was her ninth of the season.
Despite the Spartans out-shooting the Sabres 22 to 4, they could not capitalize.
Erdman, Dykstra and Spartan freshman goalkeeper Liz Wong combined to stop 18 of the 21 shots sent their direction, with each goalkeeper allowing one goal.
The decisive goal was tallied one second over six minutes into the first overtime when Schenck once again booted a corner kick to the waiting Spartans in front of the Sabre net. Schenck’s pass found the head of senior forward Jessica Novickas who deflected the pass to a waiting Joyce and Joyce took care of the rest, notching her second goal of the day, this one the game winning goal.
Wong earned her eighth win of the season with three saves.
The Spartans improve their record to 11-5 overall and 7-1 in the NAC, while the Sabres fell to 8-5 overall and 7-4 in the NAC.