The Western Nebraska Community College women's soccer team had a battle with not only Northeastern Junior College but also Mother Nature as the Cougars lost an overtime thriller 1-0 Friday afternoon at Landers Soccer Complex.

                Friday's women's game was a contest that took four hours to complete because with 22 minutes left in the first half, the match was halted because of lightning and a cold rain that included hail. Play resumed around 3:15 p.m.

                Before the weather delay, both teams had shots on goal as Natalya Baird-Watson and Andrea Jimenez had good shots followed by NJC with three. Once the lightning caused the nearly 2-hour delay, neither team could score as both went into halftime knotted at 0-0.

               The second half saw plenty of action as NJC missed a shot that hit the top of the goal just three minutes into the second half. Vanessa Vasquez followed with a shot that was saved. Jimenez had another shot that went high and then Tania Razo went one-on-one with the goalkeeper and had the ball go off the top of the goal with 18 minutes to play.

                There were plenty of shots after that and with 30 seconds to play Izzy Wright had a shot that was online to go in and then it went just wide to force overtime.

                The overtime period saw WNCC have a prime chance to win it as a Cougar player had a wide-open shot with no goalkeeper in net and the ball went off the top of the goal. NJC got the ball and drove the field and with 7:52 to play as Allison Seery passed the ball to Jacqueline Escelera who drove to the net and beat a Cougar defender and scored the game winner.

                WNCC was outshot in the contest 13-10 while NJC had four corner kicks to three for WNCC.

                WNCC will look to rebound Saturday when they host Lamar Community College, who is in their first year of having soccer in Region IX. Kickoff for the Lamar match is set for 1 p.m. at Landers Soccer Complex.