LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Earlham College women's soccer team battled back from a goal down to tie the game twice, but Spalding University scored two goals in the final five minutes to earn a 4-2 victory over the Quakers in the season-opener for both teams on Thursday.

Earlham connected on its first shot when senior Cherrah Barclay found fellow senior Jordan Kartman in the 13th minute. The Golden Eagles responded, however, netting two goals in the next seven minutes off of Earlham goalkeeper, freshman Sari Stissi.

Trailing 2-1 at halftime, Barclay, the team's leading scorer in 2015, netted her first goal of the season in the 50th minute when senior Kelly Mayhew found an opening in the Spalding defense.

Over 35 minutes of time passed with the score deadlocked at 2-2, but Kelsie Huffman broke loose in the 86th minute to net the go-ahead goal. The Quakers pushed numbers forward in an attempt to equalized, but Dee Dee Sliter put Spalding ahead two goals on a counter attack with three minutes to play.

"We played hard, but just ran out of gas in the end," first-year head coach Chad Hardin said. "We need to finish our halves better, but we continue to show improvement and will learn from our mistakes."

The Golden Eagles held an 18-4 shots advantage including 14-3 in shots on goal. Stissi look the loss for Earlham, but made 10 saves in the process.

Earlham will look to rebound on Sunday when the Quakers face Berea on the road at 1 p.m.