PICTURED ABOVE: Isabelle Oliver's game-winning goal in the 75th minute gave Wheaton a 2-1 victory over #3-ranked University of Chicago on Tuesday night.

Wheaton, Ill. - An early evening thunderstorm did not steal all the theatrics at Joe Bean Stadium on Tuesday night. The Wheaton women's soccer team followed with a riveting Tuesday's thunderstorms with a scintillating Top-25 battle against the University of Chicago that saw the Thunder storm back from an early deficit to knock off the third-ranked Maroons. The Thunder hand UChicago its first loss of the season with the 2-1 victory, dropping the Maroons to 7-1-1 on the season. Wheaton improves to 7-2 on the year and collects its second victory over a Top-25 opponent.

Tuesday night's match was excruciatingly close in every facet. Chicago finished with a narrow 15-13 edge in shots after both teams fired seven shots in the first half. The Maroons also held a slim 7-5 advantage in shots on goal as well as a 6-5 edge in corner kick opportunities. Lauren Ketchum was the star for the Thunder, allowing just one goal and making six saves. Miranda Malone played the first half for the Maroons, allowing one goal and making three saves. Katie Donovan took the loss for UChicago, allowing one goal and making two saves.

Unfortunately for Donovan, all of her action came at once early in the 75th minute. Collecting off a Maroon turnover in the offensive half, Isabelle Oliver played the ball out to the left to Aeva Graber, who pushed forward into the attacking third. Graber sent a strong cross into the box where it found the head of Oliver and lofted toward the goalline. Donovan jumped up to slap the ball off her line but it fell back down to the feet of Oliver and the Maroon defense. Oliver's attempt to knock it home was denied, but an attempted clearance was broken up by Graber and rolled back to Oliver in the box. She then turned and fired up and over the shoulder of Donovan for her second goal of the season (VIDEO) to give the Thunder its first lead of the night at 2-1.

Moments later, it looked like a similar scrum in front of the net would lead to a potentially crushing Maroons equalizer. Playing in from the right side (VIDEO), the ball fell dangerously at the feet of Nicole Willing right in front of the Thunder net. However, Willing could not control the ball, with the ball deflecting off the feet of a teammate and not allowing her a shot opportunity. Willing dropped the ball off to Claudia Hodgetts, whose shot attempt ws blocked by Carney Blake. Blake's deflection rolled free to Sydney Mathis, whose one-timer was headed away by Suzanne Kimble and finally cleared away with just under 15 minutes to play.

In the final minutes, Ketchum was there to save the Thunder one final time. Desperately pushing forward looking to tie the score, Chicago played a ball threateningly through the middle, where it was deflected by a Thunder defender and spun dangerously towards the far post. Ketchum redirected herself and laid out toward the post to slap the ball away (VIDEO) and out of play for a corner kick.

UChicago opened the game in control of the match, pushing forward against the Thunder defense until Adrianna Vera found enough room to score her second goal of the season on an assist from Katie Jasminski just 14:40 into the match. Wheaton was finally able to level the run of play in the middle half and started threatening late in the half on some nice combo play between Isabelle Oliver and Aeva Graber. In the 40th minute, Oliver carried through the middle of the field and played out to the left for Graber who pulled up from the left corner of the 18-yard box and lofted a shot attempt that curled toward the far post and over the head of Miranda Malone, landing in the side netting for Graber's third goal of the season (VIDEO).

Wheaton will step back into CCIW action on Saturday afternoon, when the Thunder travel to Illinois Wesleyan for a 1 pm matchup against the Titans.