DUDLEY, Mass. - The Bard College women's lacrosse team has to be exhausted. And exhilarated.

They spent all Thursday afternoon chasing the game against Nichols. They were down one goal eight times, down two goals three times, and the game was tied five times. They never led ... until overtime, that is.

Nicole Ellin's third goal of the game came with 54 seconds left in the first overtime, and Bard stunned Nichols, 9-8, in a non-league thriller.

Ellin's heroics capped a wild last 10 minutes. Lindsay O'Connell (Danvers, MA) scored her fourth goal of the game to give the Bison (1-5) an 8-6 lead with 10:03 left in regulation time. Melissa Rosenthal's first goal of the game cut the deficit to 8-7 less than a minute later.

That's when the stress level ratcheted up about 100 percent. Kaylynn Tran made a big save on Miranda Smith (Methuen, MA) at the 7:35 mark, gobbled up the ground ball, and the Raptors cleared it successfully.

Rosenthal scored again, this time on a free position shot, and it was 8-8 with 6:41 to go. After Nichols won the ensuing draw control, Tran made another big save with 5:58 to go to keep it tied.

Bard turned it on from there, and Nichols' goalie Emily Eagan (Hingham, MA) had to make three crucial saves in the final five minutes to force overtime.

Ellin's game-winner came off an assist from Rosenthal, and Bard's first lead of the day ended the game.

O'Connell had seven draw controls to go with four goals for Nichols, and Eagan made 11 saves.

Rosenthal finished with two goals and three assists; Ellin had three goals and one assist; Caleigh DeCaprio scored twice, while single goals came from Marion Adams and Dylan McDonald. Rosenthal and McDonald had five ground balls apiece, and Tran finished with seven saves and six ground balls.

Up next for Bard, 2-1, is a non-league game against Sage at Dietz Stadium in Kingston on Saturday at noon. You can follow that game via Live Stats right here.