Big Ten title hopes stayed alive this weekend, not just for the Wisconsin football team, but for the women’s soccer team as well.

Wisconsin seized a last-minute 1-0 double overtime victory over Michigan on Sunday in the second-to-last game of the season to remain one point down from first-place Ohio State in the conference standings.

Sophomore midfielder Alev Kelter kept Wisconsin’s title hopes kicking after scoring the golden goal in the 108th minute of play, improving the Badgers to 9-4-4, 5-1-2 on the year.

With the game nearing its conclusion, junior Erin Jacobsen fed a pass to freshman Kodee Williams on the right flank, who beat the defender around the corner before sending in the cross.

Kelter took a shot from less than 10 yards out in front of the goal but the ball traveled directly into Michigan goalkeeper Haley Kopmeyer, who was unable to keep a hand on the ball. Kelter attempted another shot off the rebound, to which the shot bounced off another defender and into the back of the net.

“Erin just played a really nice ball to the outside and I took a touch, got around the defender and I tried to curl it around her so she couldn’t block it,” Williams said. “It bobbled a little bit in the box but Alev got on it and it was amazing.”

After a humbling start to the season, the Badgers have now lost one match in their last 14 games.

“It feels great that we were able to just hang on another game and just keep it going and stay composed,” Kelter said.

Though the game was scoreless for over 100 minutes prior to Kelter’s goal, the match contained a healthy amount of chances from both teams, and, during the latter portion of the game, an increase in physical play.

The Wolverines managed to keep the ball on Wisconsin’s side of the field for the majority of the first half, though Wisconsin was able to create chances nonetheless.

After 12 minutes, Wisconsin had drawn two fouls just outside the box, but the Wolverine defenders did well to head away the incoming volleys from freshman Catie Sessions.

The Badger backline faced a hefty task in containing freshman Nkem Ezurike, a 5’11” forward for the Wolverines. Though the Badgers prevented her from as much as a shot on goal, the attention demanded by Ezurike opened up other avenues for the Michigan offense to advance the ball.

In the latter part of the first half, Michigan threatened on three corner kicks, which sailed low across the goalmouth, though the ball went either wide of the goal off a hit, or unhit at all.

Michigan’s best chance came in the 36th minute when Shelby Chambers-Garcia received a through-ball on the right side of the goal. She centered the ball to an open Ezurike, who couldn’t strick the ball ideally, as the shot went wide.

“Their frontline is dangerous, they put some pressure on us,” head coach Paula Wilkins said. “Nkem, up front, is very dangerous and by drawing all that attention to herself, she can spread the ball out for other players and obviously create some chances.”

After the Wolverines controlled much of the first half, the Badgers eventually regained momentum in the second, peppering the Michigan goal with seven shots, four of which were on target.

The Badgers came within inches of a goal in the 57th minute when Wisconsin drew another foul just outside the 18-yard box. Three Badgers lined up behind the ball as sophomore Monica Lam-Feist sent in a spectacular kick with her left foot off of the set piece. The ball soared as high as it could go without hitting the crossbar but Kopmeyer showed tremendous effort in her diving save.

From there, Williams and sophomore defender Lindsey Johnson bombarded the Michigan backline with balls into the box but much of those passes weren’t able to connect for a shot.

Wilkins encouraged the team not to lose confidence.

“The biggest thing I said was that, ‘Just keep trying to trust your teammates, you don’t need to be hitting shots from 35 yards out. Trust that you guys are going to be there for each other,” Wilkins said.

To make matters worse, as the match entered overtime, it was apparent that the fifth-place Wolverines were comfortable with draining the clock for a tie.

“[Wilkins] just told us not to settle in, that we don’t need to tie, we can win and they wanted to tie – they were wasting time and we just had to fight through that,” Williams said.

Wisconsin remained true to that, and though it took 108 minutes, the Badgers finally found their golden goal to stay on the heels of Ohio State.

“Kodee just had her after burners going, made it around that girl and that’s how, usually, our offense is going to be able to finish, is around the corner,” Kelter said. “She was able to get in a great cross off and Laurie Nosbusch went to the near post and took her defender away and I was able to just volley it in.”