Box score

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ—Tara Ballay scored on a header off of a cross from Angela Monaco with just 2:55 remaining in the second and final overtime period, boosting Rider to a 1-0 win over visiting NJIT in non-conference women's soccer Sunday evening.
 
Ballay, a key freshman on an experience-laden team, scored from in front of the net to give her team its first season-opening victory since 2007. The Broncs had lost last year's season opener in overtime, 1-0, but went on to a strong 9-6-4 finish in 2011. Rider returns nine starters and 19 players total from that team which posted a 2-0 win at NJIT last season.
 
Monaco, a senior who assisted on Ballay's goal, started all 19 games last year on a defense that ranked second in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference with seven shutouts.
 
Rider's Jennifer Maier hit the crossbar with a shot in the 75th minute.
 
Rider senior goalkeeper Jenn Nichols was credited with three saves in posting her season-opening shutout.
 
NJIT, which rolled past Saint Peter's, 3-0, two days earlier, is 1-1 in two starts. Freshman goalkeeper Samantha Bersett, who was flawless in 90 minutes at Saint Peter's, made eight stops at Rider before finally conceding her first college goal against at 107:05, snapping a career-opening shutout stretch of more than three hours and 17 minutes.
 
The final totals showed Rider with a 22-10 advantage in total shots, but most of that came in a first half that saw the home team outshoot the visitors, 10-2. It was 9-6 for Rider in the second half and the overtime shots were 2-2 before Ballay nodded home the game-winner.
 
The only two on-target shots of overtime before the Ballay goal came from NJIT freshman Abi Fakolujo, who got off one shot in each of the final two minutes of the first extra session. The other Highlander shot on goal came from junior Amanda Redden in the second half. Redden, Gechi Ukaegbu, and Madeline Griep all joined Fakolujo with two total shots.
 
NJIT, which started eight freshmen at Rider after starting seven in Friday's win at Saint Peter's, is off until Friday night, when the Highlanders host Marist at 5 pm in the 2012 home opener on Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium.
 
Marist, a participant in the 2011 NCAA Division I Women's College Cup tournament, is the defending champion of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, which is also the home of the first two 2012 NJIT foes, Saint Peter's and Rider. The Red Foxes, 13-6-2 overall a year ago and 7-1-1 in the MAAC regular season, will host Wagner on Tuesday ahead of the Friday visit to Newark.