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THREE RIVERS — Jaycee Myer felt her Niles girls’ soccer team played well enough to come away with a win in Wednesday’s Wolverine Conference opener at Three Rivers.

After giving up a late second-half goal, the Vikings were forced to settle for a 4-4 tie with the Wildcats in a match played in extremely windy conditions.

“Tonight, if we had been able to put all the pieces together I think we could’ve won this match. I’m very proud of these girls though. We lost 1-0 to them last season on a late corner kick so to be able to tie Three Rivers is a strong start to our conference season. We had a lot of key players step up for us tonight.”

Niles is now 0-0-1 in the league and 4-1-1 overall.

Three Rivers grabbed a 1-0 lead after junior midfielder Paige McDonald scored at the 34:06 mark of the first half on an assist from Olivia Hall.

Senior Amity Riggenbach’s unassisted goal for Niles off a corner kick at 27:51 tied the match at 1-1.

The Vikings’ lead was shortlived, however, as the Wildcats seized a 2-1 advantage at 25:21 on a goal from junior forward Tori Thorbjorsen assisted by Natalie McGahan.

Sophomore Nyla Hover scored for Niles at 23:49 off an assist from junior Kelsea Slater, evening the match up at 2-2 entering halftime.

Amelia Florkowski gave Niles a 3-2 advantage when she scored the first of her two second-half goals at 27:31. Freshman Claire DevlesHoward was credited with the assist for the Vikings on Florkowski’s goal.

Three Rivers, however, bounced back to tie it up again at 3-3 on a McGahan goal off Thorbjorsen’s assist at 24:35.

Florkowski would score again off another assist from DevlesHoward for a 4-3 Niles advantage with 19:58 remaining in the match.

NcGahan found the net again, however, for Three Rivers with 11:55 left to knot things up at 4-4. The goal was unassisted.

Niles had the ball down near the Three Rivers goal four times in the waning minutes of the match but were unable to get a clear shot at the Wildcats’ net.

Niles had 12 shots on goal to Three Rivers’ 10.

Junior Kaydence Jacobs had a strong night in the net for Niles where she registered 12 goalie saves.

“Kaydence is a volleyball player. I forced her to play soccer for us after I coached her in volleyball,” Myer laughed. “She came in anxious but very confident and really stepped up for us tonight.”

Niles had five corner kicks on the evening.

“Our kids fought harder tonight then they have all season and never gave up even when things weren’t always going our way,” Myer added.

Three Rivers’ sophomore goal keeper Amaria Currier had 10 saves for the Wildcats, now 0-0-1 in the league and 1-2-1 overall.

“The wind was tough on both teams tonight. We had three or four breakaways in that second half that we couldn’t capitalize on. Our kids worked hard though,” said Three Rivers Coach Travis Shubnell.