The University of the Fraser Valley women's soccer team dropped points in heartbreaking fashion on Sunday afternoon in Prince George, settling for a 1-1 draw with the UNBC Timberwolves.

The Cascades carried the play throughout, out-shooting the host T-Wolves 17-5 and earning 10 corners to UNBC's one. Yet despite all that, they were only able to build a 1-0 lead on Brittney Zacharuk's goal in the 23rd minute.

With the door still open a crack, the T-Wolves came storming through in the 85th minute as Sofia Jones netted the equalizer. The result enables UNBC (3-3-4) to stay ahead of UFV (2-3-5) in the Pacific Division standings.

"It's super-frustrating," Cascades head coach Rob Giesbrecht acknowledged. "This is a team ahead of us in the table, and I still think we can catch them, but we've made things harder on ourselves.

"We need to find a second goal. It's frustrating that we couldn't find it – we just lacked a bit of quality in the area. We had so many corners, and there was good service, but we're just not banging them in."

Cascades senior captain Zacharuk took advantage of a UNBC defensive miscue to open the scoring. Katie Lampen's pass from the right wing somehow threaded its way through a crowd and found Zacharuk sprinting in from the left, and she deposited the ball behind UNBC goalkeeper Brooke Molby.

UFV continued to look dangerous offensively, but were unable to find the final touch in front of goal. Marianne Spring got on the end of several Zacharuk corners, but her headers did not find the target. In the 69th minute, some nice interplay between Zacharuk and Simi Lehal yielded a pass to Halle McCambley all alone in front and she tapped the ball home, but she'd been whistled for offside.

The T-Wolves hit paydirt on a rare offensive foray in the dying minutes. UNBC defender Mara McCleary sent a long ball up ahead and it rolled towards the edge of the Cascades' box, into the path of Spring with keeper Joven Sandhu coming out to offer support. But Jones came scooting in between them and claimed the ball, chipping it past a diving Sandhu into the open cage.

"You let a team hang around and don't have the final decisive goal, it's just what happens in soccer," Giesbrecht summarized. "It's our fifth tie of the year, and four of them should have been wins."

Zacharuk's goal gives her 35 points for her career, just one off the Cascades' program record of 36 currently held by Monika Levarsky.

Up next, the Cascades take on local rival Trinity Western – No. 1 in the U SPORTS national rankings – in a home-and-home set, Friday in Langley (5 p.m.) and Sunday in Abbotsford (2 p.m.).