VERONA — Tory Nestler lay helplessly on the seat of her pants, her brilliant anticipation and deft instincts about to deal her a cruel and untimely twist of fate.

The Verona prep girls soccer team had battled second-ranked Brookfield East evenly all night through 80-plus minutes of driving rain and sloppy playing conditions at Badger Ridge Middle School, and now the junior goalkeeper and her teammates were going to fall mercy to a giant puddle in the middle of the field.

"I saw the ball coming, so I went out, not necessarily to get it, but to be in position," Nestler said. "The ball stopped in a puddle, so I tried to stop and go back to the net, but I slipped and fell.

"I got a piece of the shot, but it went in."

Nestler's valiant effort went for naught, as Brookfield East junior Kate O'Brien chipped in the game-winner from the edge of the 18-yard box and into the open net, giving the Spartans a 2-1 overtime win over the Wildcats Friday night in the Verona Invitational.

The play was a bizarre and fitting end to a contest dictated by the wet field.

"On that play, the field was a big factor," Nestler said. "But you have to deal with whatever the weather is."

It was 10th-ranked Verona's first loss in three overtime games this season, but Wildcats coach Matt Heilman said it was a match that could have gone either way.

"We were right there," he said. "We had chances. We missed some opportunities, but it was a game we could have won."

It would have been another win for a Verona team that already posted victories over perennial power Waukesha Catholic Memorial and Southern Badger Conference rival Madison Edgewood in the past week.

"It lets us know we can play with anybody," Heilman said of the tough loss to a top-ranked opponent. "We've had an extremely tough schedule, but today we played pretty well and showed some resiliency."

That they did.

After Brookfield East's Sam Carstens gave the Spartans a 1-0 lead with a left-footed volley off a beautiful cross from Alex Piercy in the 65th minute, the Wildcats responded less than 6 minutes later off a set piece.

Freshman defender Abby Juzwik hit a bending ball on a free kick into a jumble of players inside the box, and the ball was headed past Spartans goalkeeper Tina Ehrett by one of her own players.

It was ruled an own goal, but Juzwik said the result was exactly what Verona was looking for, no matter how it went in.

"It was left post all the way, and we were just trying to get somebody on it," Juzwik said. "It felt good to tie the game up so quickly."

But O'Brien's goal in the ninth minute of overtime erased any good feelings Juzwik and Verona had about the match.

"I saw an open net, and everyone was yelling at me to shoot it," O'Brien said. "So I went for it."