VESTAVIA HILLS, AL --- The Howard women's soccer team had gone through its inaugural season in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) with very little resistance before Friday night.

A bit of adversity from an unlikely source may have provided the seminal moment of what may conclude as a championship season.

Junior forward Nikanya Clark's goal in the 88th minute capped an impressive comeback that gave Howard a 3-2 victory over Grambling State and kept the Lady Bison in the hunt for the SWAC regular season championship.

Howard (9-8-1, 8-1 SWAC) came into Friday's game in first place in the conference, having won two straight games and four of five. By contrast, Grambling (1-10-1, 1-7-1 SWAC) was eliminated from contention for the the SWAC TOurnament.

In the first half, you couldn't tell which team was which.

Grambling's strategy of immediately clearing all attacks deep made advancing the ball difficult for the Lady Bison. While Howard still outshot Grambling 10-4, most of the Lady Bison's shots either hit the crossbar or were easily saved. Grambling took advantage of its clearing strategy by aggressively attacking on Howard misplays.

The first came in the seventh minute when GSU's Jazmyne Lewis set up Savannah John for a breakaway and low shot goal past senior goalkeeper Kyra Dickinson.

Grambling made a similar play in the 29th minute, this time using a Tiana Bateau-to-Jemila Davis connection to take a 2-0 lead over the Lady Bison.

For a time, Howard's growing number of near misses at the net looked to turn into a defeat that would open the door wider for Prairie View A&M, who beat Southern 2-0 Friday and are the only team with a chance to catch Howard in the standings.

Then something clicked.

In the second half, Howard was able to ramp up its attacking press as fatigue started to set in and Grambling's clearances became shorter and shorter. The Lady Bison outshot GSU 13-1 in the final 45 minutes and took seven more corners (8-1).

The increased pressure lead the Lady Tigers to commit an own goal in the 68th minute to get Howard on the board, 2-1.

A minute and a half later, Howard would score add a conventional goal as sophomore forward Carmen Suarez crossed a ball into the box from the left side that junior forward Rasheeda Ansari headed over GSU goalkeeper Jennifer LeSage to tie the game at 2-2.

The dramatic comeback would be completed when senior midfielder Nia Walcott sent a through pass to set up Clark's goal with 2:45 remaining in the game.

Howard's final SWAC game, a matchup with Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Sunday, October 26 at 1 pm Eastern, presents very simple scenarios for Howard to earn its first SWAC regular season championship:

- A win vs UAPB will put Howard at 9-1 (27 pts) and clinch the title outright;
- A tie will put Howard at 8-1-1 (25 points); PVAMU can get to 8-1-1 by winning out but Howard holds the head-to-head tiebreaker.
- A loss would leave Howard at 8-2 (24 points); anything but PVAMU winning out gives Howard the title.