EAST GRAND FORKS, N.D. – For 75 minutes of today's Summit League match against rival North Dakota State, North Dakota appeared to be riding its tried-and-true formula on the way to yet another victory.

Senior forward Katie Moller scored her league-leading 10th goal of the season and reigning Summit League Female Athlete of the Month Olivia Swenson was closing in on her league-leading eighth shutout on the year.

But the Bison, last year's conference tournament runners-up, struck for a pair of goals in the final minutes and put the clamps on defensive the rest of the way to defeat the Fighting Hawks 2-1 at East Grand Forks Senior High.

It was the first conference loss of the year for North Dakota, now 8-3-1 overall and 2-1-0 in the Summit.

NDSU's Hanna Norman got the Bison on the board off of a free kick in the 76th minute after UND goalkeeper Olivia Swenson made a charge at the loose ball but was unable to field it cleanly, allowing for Norman's tap-in. Then Malley O'Brien struck for the winner two-and-a-half later, knocking home a cross feed in the box.

"It felt like we had good control of the game. It was a battle, it was back-and-forth," said North Dakota head coach Chris Logan. "I'm disappointed with the result, but not the effort. That was a game that could have gone either way. Unfortunately we were on the wrong end of the drama today. They're a top-four team and we almost had them today."

Moller, who broke the scoreless draw in the 52nd minute, said the Fighting Hawks largely stuck to their game plan but fell victim to a handful of untimely miscues.

"I wasn't really unhappy with this performance, it was just a couple of minor breakdowns," said Moller. "This team [NDSU] has been in the Summit championship, they know how to find a way. For us, it's learning how to find a way and learning how to close out games."

Logan said he felt the complexion of the game changed after Norman's tying goal, which snowballed into O'Brien's goal minutes later.

"Maybe a concentration thing. Maybe they had us shook a little bit because we're not used to conceding when we're up," said Logan. "Maybe there was a little bit of, 'This hasn't happened before' and we didn't know how to respond."

UND remains very in the mix for a top-four Summit League finish, which would clinch a conference tournament berth, but now plays three of its final five matches on the road including trips to Omaha (Oct. 11) and Denver (Oct. 14) next week.

While conference points may have slipped through the Hawks' grasp today, Moller said today's performance merely solidified their confidence heading into the final weeks of the season.

"It just gives us a big chip on our shoulders. In the past, this game has always been, 'Let's play defense the whole game.' This time, we took it at them. Even in the second half, we kind of had the upper hand," said Moller.

"It just shows us that we've come so far and that we really can play with teams like this."

Notes: The Bison held the edge in shots (17-14) and shots on goal (7-5) … NDSU had 10 corner kicks to UND's one.